Scotland
In Scotland all the people wearRed hair and freckles, and one seesThe men in women's dresses there,With stout, decollete, low-necked knees.('Eblins ye dinna ken, I doot,We're unco guid, so hoot, mon, hoot!')
They love 'ta whuskey' and 'ta Kirk';I don't know which they like the most.They aren't the least afraid of work;No sense of humour can they boast;And you require an axe to coaxThe canny Scot to see your jokes.
They play an instrument they callThe bagpipes; and the sound of theseIs reminiscent of the squallOf infant pigs attacked by bees;Music that might drive cats awayOr make reluctant chickens lay.
Words in this poem
- unco a.
- Unknown; strange, or foreign; unusual, or surprising; distant in manner; reserved. [Scot. The same word as E. uncouth.]
- hoot v. i.
- To cry out or shout in contempt. [OE. hoten, houten, huten; cf. OSw. huta, Sw. huta ut to take one up sharply, fr. Sw. hut interj., begone! cf. also W. hwt off! off with it! away! hoot!]
- humour n.
- Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.]
- canny a.
- Artful; cunning; shrewd; wary. [Cf. Icel. kenn skilled, learned, or E. canny. Cf. Kenn.]
- reminiscent a.
- Recalling to mind, or capable of recalling to mind; having remembrance; reminding one of something. [L. reminiscens, -entis, p. pr. of reminisci to recall to mind, to recollect; pref.re- re + a word akin to mens mind, memini I remember. See Mind.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Scotland is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harry Graham, Scotland, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/scotland.html, id L23295.
Form and metre
Scotland is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABABCC wearA · seesB · thereA · kneesB · dootC · hootC
- 2 ABABCC kirkA · mostB · workA · boastB · coaxC · jokesC
- 3 ABABCC callA · theseB · squallA · beesB · awayC · layC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In Scotland all the people wear | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Red hair and freckles, and one sees | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The men in women's dresses there, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| With stout, decollete, low-necked knees. | 8 | ········ |
| ('Eblins ye dinna ken, I doot, | 8 | /˘······ |
| We're unco guid, so hoot, mon, hoot!') | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They love 'ta whuskey' and 'ta Kirk'; | 8 | ········ |
| I don't know which they like the most. | 8 | ········ |
| They aren't the least afraid of work; | 9 | ·/˘··˘/·· |
| No sense of humour can they boast; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And you require an axe to coax | 8 | ···/···· |
| The canny Scot to see your jokes. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They play an instrument they call | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| The bagpipes; and the sound of these | 8 | ·/······ |
| Is reminiscent of the squall | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Of infant pigs attacked by bees; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Music that might drive cats away | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| Or make reluctant chickens lay. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
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.