Mally’s Meek, Mally’s Sweet
Chorus—Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet,Mally’s modest and discreet;Mally’s rare, Mally’s fair,Mally’s every way complete.
As I was walking up the street,A barefit maid I chanc’d to meet;But O the road was very hardFor that fair maiden’s tender feet.Mally’s meek, &c.
It were mair meet that those fine feetWere weel laced up in silken shoon;An’ ’twere more fit that she should sitWithin yon chariot gilt aboon,Mally’s meek, &c.
Her yellow hair, beyond compare,Comes trinklin down her swan-like neck,And her two eyes, like stars in skies,Would keep a sinking ship frae wreck,Mally’s meek, &c.
Words in this poem
- discreet a.
- Possessed of discernment, especially in avoiding error or evil, and in the adaptation of means to ends; prudent; sagacious; judicious; not rash or heedless; cautious. [F. discret, L. discretus separated (whence the meaning reserved, prudent), p. p. of discernere. See Discern, and cf. Discrete.]
- weel
- A kind of trap or snare for fish, made of twigs. Carew. [Prov. E. weel, weal, a wicker basket to catch eels; prob. akin to willow, and so called as made of willow twigs.]
- laced a.
- Fastened with a lace or laces; decorated with narrow strips or braid. See Lace, v. t.
- aboon prep.
- and adv. Above.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mally’s Meek, Mally’s Sweet 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, Mally’s Meek, Mally’s Sweet, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/mally-s-meek-mally-s-sweet.html, id L03443.
Form and metre
Mally’s Meek, Mally’s Sweet is 19 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 16% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AA-A sweetA · discreetA · fair · completeA
- 2 AA-A- streetA · meetA · hard · feetA · —
- 3 -A-A- feet · shoonA · sit · aboonA · —
- 4 -A-A- compare · neckA · skies · wreckA · —
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Chorus—Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet, | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Mally’s modest and discreet; | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| Mally’s rare, Mally’s fair, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Mally’s every way complete. | 8 | /˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| As I was walking up the street, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A barefit maid I chanc’d to meet; | 9 | ········· |
| But O the road was very hard | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For that fair maiden’s tender feet. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Mally’s meek, &c. | 4 | /˘·· |
| It were mair meet that those fine feet | 8 | ········ |
| Were weel laced up in silken shoon; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| An’ ’twere more fit that she should sit | 8 | ········ |
| Within yon chariot gilt aboon, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Mally’s meek, &c. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Her yellow hair, beyond compare, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Comes trinklin down her swan-like neck, | 8 | ········ |
| And her two eyes, like stars in skies, | 8 | ········ |
| Would keep a sinking ship frae wreck, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Mally’s meek, &c. | 4 | /˘·· |
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.