Song.—O, Were I on Parnassus Hill
O, were I on Parnassus hill,Or had o’ Helicon my fill,That I might catch poetic skill,To sing how dear I love thee!But Nith maun be my Muse’s well,My Muse maun be thy bonie sel’,On Corsincon I’ll glowr and spell,And write how dear I love thee.
Then come, sweet Muse, inspire my lay!For a’ the lee-lang simmer’s dayI couldna sing, I couldna say,How much, how dear, I love thee,I see thee dancing o’er the green,Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean,Thy tempting lips, thy roguish een—By Heaven and Earth I love thee!
By night, by day, a-field, at hame,The thoughts o’ thee my breast inflame:And aye I muse and sing thy name—I only live to love thee.Tho’ I were doom’d to wander on,Beyond the sea, beyond the sun,Till my last weary sand was run;Till then—and then I love thee!
Words in this poem
- parnassus n.
- A mountain in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and famous for a temple of Apollo and for the Castalian spring. Grass of Parnassus. (Bot.) See under Grass, and Parnassia.
- helicon n.
- A mountain in Boeotia, in Greece, supposed by the Greeks to be the residence of Apollo and the Muses.
- simmer v. i.
- To boil gently, or with a gentle hissing; to begin to boil. [Prov. E. also simper; -- an onomatopoetic word.]
- jimp a.
- Neat; handsome; elegant. See Gimp. [Cf. Gimp, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song.—O, Were I on Parnassus Hill 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, Song.—O, Were I on Parnassus Hill, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/song-o-were-i-on-parnassus-hill.html, id L03142.
Form and metre
Song.—O, Were I on Parnassus Hill is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AAABCCCB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables.
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 AAABCCCB hillA · fillA · skillA · theeB · wellC · selC · spellC · theeB
- 2 AAABCCCB layA · dayA · sayA · theeB · greenC · cleanC · eenC · theeB
- 3 AAAB-CCB hameA · inflameA · nameA · theeB · on · sunC · runC · theeB
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, were I on Parnassus hill, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or had o’ Helicon my fill, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That I might catch poetic skill, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| To sing how dear I love thee! | 7 | ······· |
| But Nith maun be my Muse’s well, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My Muse maun be thy bonie sel’, | 8 | ········ |
| On Corsincon I’ll glowr and spell, | 8 | ········ |
| And write how dear I love thee. | 7 | ······· |
| Then come, sweet Muse, inspire my lay! | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| For a’ the lee-lang simmer’s day | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I couldna sing, I couldna say, | 8 | ········ |
| How much, how dear, I love thee, | 7 | ······· |
| I see thee dancing o’er the green, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean, | 8 | ········ |
| Thy tempting lips, thy roguish een— | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By Heaven and Earth I love thee! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By night, by day, a-field, at hame, | 8 | ········ |
| The thoughts o’ thee my breast inflame: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And aye I muse and sing thy name— | 8 | ········ |
| I only live to love thee. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Tho’ I were doom’d to wander on, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beyond the sea, beyond the sun, | 8 | ········ |
| Till my last weary sand was run; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Till then—and then I love thee! | 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.