On Chloris
From the white-blossom’d sloe my dear Chloris requestedA sprig, her fair breast to adorn:No, by Heavens! I exclaim’d, let me perish, if everI plant in that bosom a thorn!
Words in this poem
- sloe n.
- A small, bitter, wild European plum, the fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa); also, the tree itself. [OE. slo, AS. sla; akin to D. slee, G. schlehe, OHG. sl$ha, Dan. slaaen, Sw. sl, perhaps originally, that which blunts the teeth, or sets them on edge (cf. Slow)]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Chloris 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, On Chloris, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/on-chloris.html, id L03374.
Form and metre
On Chloris is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 -A-A requested · adornA · ever · thornA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| From the white-blossom’d sloe my dear Chloris requested | 13 | ···/˘···/˘˘/˘ |
| A sprig, her fair breast to adorn: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| No, by Heavens! I exclaim’d, let me perish, if ever | 13 | ··/˘·˘/··/˘·/ |
| I plant in that bosom a thorn! | 8 | ····/˘·· |
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.