Lines to Mr. John Kennedy
Farewell, dear friend! may guid luck hit you,And ’mang her favourites admit you:If e’er Detraction shore to smit you,May nane believe him,And ony deil that thinks to get you,Good Lord, deceive him!
Words in this poem
- detraction n.
- A taking away or withdrawing. [F. détraction, L. detractio.]
- smit
- 3d. pers. sing. pres. of Smite.
- deil n.
- Devil; -- spelt also deel. Deil's buckie. See under Buckie.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines to Mr. John Kennedy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Project Gutenberg ebook #1279; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Burns, Lines to Mr. John Kennedy, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/lines-to-mr-john-kennedy.html, id L03040.
Form and metre
Lines to Mr. John Kennedy is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes AAABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AAABAB youA · youA · youA · himB · youA · himB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Farewell, dear friend! may guid luck hit you, | 9 | ·/······· |
| And ’mang her favourites admit you: | 9 | ······˘/· |
| If e’er Detraction shore to smit you, | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| May nane believe him, | 5 | ··˘/· |
| And ony deil that thinks to get you, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Good Lord, deceive him! | 5 | ··˘/· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.