The Lover’s Morning Salute to His Mistress
Sleep’st thou, or wak’st thou, fairest creature?Rosy morn now lifts his eye,Numbering ilka bud which NatureWaters wi’ the tears o’ joy.Now, to the streaming fountain,Or up the heathy mountain,The hart, hind, and roe, freely, wildly-wanton stray;In twining hazel bowers,Its lay the linnet pours,The laverock to the skyAscends, wi’ sangs o’ joy,While the sun and thou arise to bless the day.
Phoebus gilding the brow of morning,Banishes ilk darksome shade,Nature, gladdening and adorning;Such to me my lovely maid.When frae my Chloris parted,Sad, cheerless, broken-hearted,The night’s gloomy shades, cloudy, dark, o’ercast my sky:But when she charms my sight,In pride of Beauty’s light—When thro’ my very heartHer burning glories dart;’Tis then—’tis then I wake to life and joy!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- heathy a.
- Full of heath; abounding with heath; as, heathy land; heathy hills.
- laverock n.
- The lark. [Old Eng. & Scot.] Gower. [See Lark the bird.]
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- darksome a.
- Dark; gloomy; obscure; shaded; cheerless.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lover’s Morning Salute to His Mistress 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, The Lover’s Morning Salute to His Mistress, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/the-lover-s-morning-salute-to-his-mistress.html, id L03386.
Form and metre
The Lover’s Morning Salute to His Mistress is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 -A-BCCD--ABD creature · eyeA · nature · joyB · fountainC · mountainC · strayD · bowers · pours · skyA · joyB · dayD
- 2 ABABCC-DDEE- morningA · shadeB · adorningA · maidB · partedC · heartedC · sky · sightD · lightD · heartE · dartE · joy
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep’st thou, or wak’st thou, fairest creature? | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Rosy morn now lifts his eye, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Numbering ilka bud which Nature | 9 | /˘˘/˘··/˘ |
| Waters wi’ the tears o’ joy. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Now, to the streaming fountain, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Or up the heathy mountain, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| The hart, hind, and roe, freely, wildly-wanton stray; | 12 | ·····/˘/˘/˘· |
| In twining hazel bowers, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Its lay the linnet pours, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The laverock to the sky | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Ascends, wi’ sangs o’ joy, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| While the sun and thou arise to bless the day. | 11 | ·····˘/···· |
| Phoebus gilding the brow of morning, | 9 | /˘/˘···/˘ |
| Banishes ilk darksome shade, | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| Nature, gladdening and adorning; | 9 | /˘/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| Such to me my lovely maid. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| When frae my Chloris parted, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Sad, cheerless, broken-hearted, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| The night’s gloomy shades, cloudy, dark, o’ercast my sky: | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| But when she charms my sight, | 6 | ······ |
| In pride of Beauty’s light— | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When thro’ my very heart | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her burning glories dart; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| ’Tis then—’tis then I wake to life and joy! | 10 | ·········· |
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.