Raging Fortune—Fragment of Song
O raging Fortune’s withering blastHas laid my leaf full low, O!O raging Fortune’s withering blastHas laid my leaf full low, O!
My stem was fair, my bud was green,My blossom sweet did blow, O!The dew fell fresh, the sun rose mild,And made my branches grow, O!
But luckless Fortune’s northern stormsLaid a’ my blossoms low, O!But luckless Fortune’s northern stormsLaid a’ my blossoms low, O!
Words in this poem
- withering a.
- Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
- luckless a.
- Being without luck; unpropitious; unfortunate; unlucky; meeting with ill success or bad fortune; as, a luckless gamester; a luckless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Raging Fortune—Fragment of Song 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, Raging Fortune—Fragment of Song, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/raging-fortune-fragment-of-song.html, id L02937.
Form and metre
Raging Fortune—Fragment of Song is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 33% 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 blastA · oB · blastA · oB
- 2 -A-A green · oA · mild · oA
- 3 ABAB stormsA · oB · stormsA · oB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O raging Fortune’s withering blast | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Has laid my leaf full low, O! | 7 | ······· |
| O raging Fortune’s withering blast | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Has laid my leaf full low, O! | 7 | ······· |
| My stem was fair, my bud was green, | 8 | ········ |
| My blossom sweet did blow, O! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The dew fell fresh, the sun rose mild, | 8 | ········ |
| And made my branches grow, O! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But luckless Fortune’s northern storms | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Laid a’ my blossoms low, O! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But luckless Fortune’s northern storms | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Laid a’ my blossoms low, O! | 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.