I Ken Something
What gars ye sing sae, birdie,As gien ye war lord o' the lift?On breid ye're an unco sma' lairdie,But in hicht ye've a kingly gift!
A' ye hae to coont yersel rich in'S a wee mawn o' glory-motes!The whilk to the throne ye're aye hitchinWi a lang tow o' sapphire notes!
Ay, yer sang's the sang o' an angelFor a sinfu' thrapple no meet,Like the pipes til a heavenly braingelWhaur they dance their herts intil their feet!
But though ye canna behaud, birdie,Ye needna gar a'thing wheesht!I'm noucht but a hirplin herdie,But I hae a sang i' my breist!
Len' me yer throat to sing throu,Len' me yer wings to gang hie,And I'll sing ye a sang a laverock to cow,And for bliss to gar him dee!
Words in this poem
- birdie n.
- A pretty or dear little bird; -- a pet name.
- unco a.
- Unknown; strange, or foreign; unusual, or surprising; distant in manner; reserved. [Scot. The same word as E. uncouth.]
- whilk n.
- A kind of mollusk, a whelk. [See Whelk a mollusk.]
- thrapple n.
- Windpipe; throttle. [Also thropple, corrupted fr. throttle.]
- canna n.
- A measure of length in Italy, varying from six to seven feet. [It.]
- laverock n.
- The lark. [Old Eng. & Scot.] Gower. [See Lark the bird.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Ken Something is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, I Ken Something, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/i-ken-something.html, id L22567.
Form and metre
I Ken Something is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
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 birdieA · liftB · lairdieA · giftB
- 2 -A-A in · motesA · hitchin · notesA
- 3 -A-A angel · meetA · braingel · feetA
- 4 A-A- birdieA · wheesht · herdieA · breist
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What gars ye sing sae, birdie, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As gien ye war lord o' the lift? | 8 | ········ |
| On breid ye're an unco sma' lairdie, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| But in hicht ye've a kingly gift! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A' ye hae to coont yersel rich in | 9 | ········· |
| 'S a wee mawn o' glory-motes! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The whilk to the throne ye're aye hitchin | 9 | ········· |
| Wi a lang tow o' sapphire notes! | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Ay, yer sang's the sang o' an angel | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| For a sinfu' thrapple no meet, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Like the pipes til a heavenly braingel | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Whaur they dance their herts intil their feet! | 9 | ········· |
| But though ye canna behaud, birdie, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Ye needna gar a'thing wheesht! | 7 | ······· |
| I'm noucht but a hirplin herdie, | 8 | ········ |
| But I hae a sang i' my breist! | 8 | ········ |
| Len' me yer throat to sing throu, | 7 | ······· |
| Len' me yer wings to gang hie, | 7 | ······· |
| And I'll sing ye a sang a laverock to cow, | 12 | ·······/˘˘·· |
| And for bliss to gar him dee! | 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.