Strathallan’s Lament
Thickest night, o’erhang my dwelling!Howling tempests, o’er me rave!Turbid torrents, wintry swelling,Roaring by my lonely cave!
Crystal streamlets gently flowing,Busy haunts of base mankind,Western breezes softly blowing,Suit not my distracted mind.
In the cause of Right engaged,Wrongs injurious to redress,Honour’s war we strongly waged,But the Heavens denied success.Ruin’s wheel has driven o’er us,Not a hope that dare attend,The wide world is all before us—But a world without a friend.
Words in this poem
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Strathallan’s Lament 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, Strathallan’s Lament, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/strathallan-s-lament.html, id L03098.
Form and metre
Strathallan’s Lament is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic 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 dwellingA · raveB · swellingA · caveB
- 2 ABAB flowingA · mankindB · blowingA · mindB
- 3 ABABBCBC engagedA · redressB · wagedA · successB · usB · attendC · usB · friendC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thickest night, o’erhang my dwelling! | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Howling tempests, o’er me rave! | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Turbid torrents, wintry swelling, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Roaring by my lonely cave! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Crystal streamlets gently flowing, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Busy haunts of base mankind, | 7 | /˘···// |
| Western breezes softly blowing, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Suit not my distracted mind. | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| In the cause of Right engaged, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Wrongs injurious to redress, | 8 | ·˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Honour’s war we strongly waged, | 8 | /˘··/˘·˘ |
| But the Heavens denied success. | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘/ |
| Ruin’s wheel has driven o’er us, | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| Not a hope that dare attend, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| The wide world is all before us— | 8 | ········ |
| But a world without a friend. | 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.