Ii.—The Twa Baubees
Stately, lang-robit, an' steppin at ease,The rich men gaed up the temple ha';Hasty, an' grippin her twa baubees,The widow cam efter, booit an' sma'.
Their goud rang lood as it fell, an' layYallow an' glintin, bonnie an' braw;But the fowk roun the Maister h'ard him sayThe puir body's baubees was mair nor it a'.
Words in this poem
- braw a.
- Well-dressed; handsome; smart; brave; -- used of persons or their clothing, etc.; as, a braw lad.
- roun v. i.
- To whisper. [obs.] Gower. [AS. r, fr. r a rune, secret, mystery; akin to G. raunen to whisper. See Rune.]
- maister n.
- Master. Chaucer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ii.—The Twa Baubees 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, Ii.—The Twa Baubees, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/ii-the-twa-baubees.html, id L22547.
Form and metre
Ii.—The Twa Baubees is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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-A- easeA · ha · baubeesA · sma
- 2 A-AA layA · braw · sayA · aA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Stately, lang-robit, an' steppin at ease, | 10 | /˘········ |
| The rich men gaed up the temple ha'; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Hasty, an' grippin her twa baubees, | 8 | /˘······ |
| The widow cam efter, booit an' sma'. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Their goud rang lood as it fell, an' lay | 9 | ········· |
| Yallow an' glintin, bonnie an' braw; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| But the fowk roun the Maister h'ard him say | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The puir body's baubees was mair nor it a'. | 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.