Pegasus at Wanlockhead
With Pegasus upon a day,Apollo, weary flying,Through frosty hills the journey lay,On foot the way was plying.
Poor slipshod giddy PegasusWas but a sorry walker;To Vulcan then Apollo goes,To get a frosty caulker.
Obliging Vulcan fell to work,Threw by his coat and bonnet,And did Sol’s business in a crack;Sol paid him with a sonnet.
Ye Vulcan’s sons of Wanlockhead,Pity my sad disaster;My Pegasus is poorly shod,I’ll pay you like my master.
Words in this poem
- slipshod a.
- Wearing shoes or slippers down at the heel.
- sonnet n.
- A short poem, -- usually amatory. [F., fr. It. sonetto, fr. suono a sound, a song, fr. L. sonus a sound. See Sound noise.]
- disaster n.
- An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [F. désastre; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + astre star, fr. L. astrum; a word of astrological origin. See Aster, Astral, Star.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pegasus at Wanlockhead 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, Pegasus at Wanlockhead, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/pegasus-at-wanlockhead.html, id L03155.
Form and metre
Pegasus at Wanlockhead is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% 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 ABAB dayA · flyingB · layA · plyingB
- 2 -A-A pegasus · walkerA · goes · caulkerA
- 4 -A-A wanlockhead · disasterA · shod · masterA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With Pegasus upon a day, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Apollo, weary flying, | 7 | ˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Through frosty hills the journey lay, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| On foot the way was plying. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Poor slipshod giddy Pegasus | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Was but a sorry walker; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| To Vulcan then Apollo goes, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| To get a frosty caulker. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Obliging Vulcan fell to work, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| Threw by his coat and bonnet, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And did Sol’s business in a crack; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sol paid him with a sonnet. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Ye Vulcan’s sons of Wanlockhead, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Pity my sad disaster; | 7 | /˘··˘/˘ |
| My Pegasus is poorly shod, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| I’ll pay you like my master. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.