Of Glenriddell and Friars’ Carse
No more, ye warblers of the wood! no more;Nor pour your descant grating on my soul;Thou young-eyed Spring! gay in thy verdant stole,More welcome were to me grim Winter’s wildest roar.
How can ye charm, ye flowers, with all your dyes?Ye blow upon the sod that wraps my friend!How can I to the tuneful strain attend?That strain flows round the untimely tomb where Riddell lies.
Yes, pour, ye warblers! pour the notes of woe,And soothe the Virtues weeping o’er his bier:The man of worth—and hath not left his peer!Is in his “narrow house,” for ever darkly low.
Thee, Spring! again with joy shall others greet;Me, memory of my loss will only meet.
Words in this poem
- descant v. i.
- To sing a variation or accomplishment. [From descant; n.; or directly fr. OF. descanter, deschanter; L. dis- + cantare to sing.]
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- bier n.
- A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of Glenriddell and Friars’ Carse 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, Of Glenriddell and Friars’ Carse, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/of-glenriddell-and-friars-carse.html, id L03360.
Form and metre
Of Glenriddell and Friars’ Carse is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 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 ABBA moreA · soulB · stoleB · roarA
- 2 ABBA dyesA · friendB · attendB · liesA
- 3 ABBA woeA · bierB · peerB · lowA
- 4 AA greetA · meetA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No more, ye warblers of the wood! no more; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor pour your descant grating on my soul; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Thou young-eyed Spring! gay in thy verdant stole, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| More welcome were to me grim Winter’s wildest roar. | 12 | ·/˘····/˘/˘· |
| How can ye charm, ye flowers, with all your dyes? | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Ye blow upon the sod that wraps my friend! | 10 | ·········· |
| How can I to the tuneful strain attend? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That strain flows round the untimely tomb where Riddell lies. | 13 | ·····˘/˘··/˘· |
| Yes, pour, ye warblers! pour the notes of woe, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And soothe the Virtues weeping o’er his bier: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The man of worth—and hath not left his peer! | 10 | ·········· |
| Is in his “narrow house,” for ever darkly low. | 11 | ···/˘··//˘· |
| Thee, Spring! again with joy shall others greet; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Me, memory of my loss will only meet. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
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.