The Sang o' the Auld Fowk
Doon cam the sunbeams, and up gaed the stour,As we spangt ower the road at ten mile the hoor,The horse wasna timmer, the cart wasna strae,And little cared we for the burn or the brae.
We war young, and the hert in's was strang i' the loup,And deeper in yet was the courage and houp;The sun was gey aft in a clood, but the heatCam throu, and dried saftly the doon fa'en weet.
Noo, the horsie's some tired, but the road's nae sae lang;The sun comes na oot, but he's no in a fang:The nicht's comin on, but hame's no far awa;We hae come a far road, but hae payit for a'.
For ane has been wi' us--and sometimes 'maist seen,Wha's cared for us better nor a' oor four e'en;He's cared for the horsie, the man, and the wife,And we're gaein hame to him for the rest o' oor life.
Doon comes the water, and up gangs nae stour;We creep ower the road at twa mile the hoor;But oor herts they are canty, for ane's to the foreWha was and wha is and will be evermore.
Words in this poem
- stour n.
- A battle or tumult; encounter; combat; disturbance; passion. [OF. estour, estor, tumult, combat, of Teutonic origin. See Storm.]
- brae n.
- A hillside; a slope; a bank; a hill. Burns. [See Bray a hill.]
- strang a.
- Strong. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Halliwell. [See Strong.]
- weet v. i.
- To know; to wit. Tyndale. [See Wit to know.]
- fang v. t.
- To catch; to seize, as with the teeth; to lay hold of; to gripe; to clutch. [OE. fangen, fongen, fon (g orig. only in p.p. and imp. tense), AS. f; akin to D. vangen, OHG. fahan, G. fahen, fangen, Isel. fa, Sw. f, f, Dan. fange, faae, Got]
- canty a.
- Cheerful; sprightly; lively; merry.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sang o' the Auld Fowk 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, The Sang o' the Auld Fowk, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-sang-o-the-auld-fowk.html, id L22561.
Form and metre
The Sang o' the Auld Fowk is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 AABB stourA · hoorA · straeB · braeB
- 2 AABB loupA · houpA · heatB · weetB
- 3 AA-- langA · fangA · awa · a
- 4 AABB seenA · e'enA · wifeB · lifeB
- 5 AABB stourA · hoorA · foreB · evermoreB
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Doon cam the sunbeams, and up gaed the stour, | 10 | ···/······ |
| As we spangt ower the road at ten mile the hoor, | 12 | ············ |
| The horse wasna timmer, the cart wasna strae, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| And little cared we for the burn or the brae. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| We war young, and the hert in's was strang i' the loup, | 12 | ············ |
| And deeper in yet was the courage and houp; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| The sun was gey aft in a clood, but the heat | 11 | ··········· |
| Cam throu, and dried saftly the doon fa'en weet. | 10 | ·········· |
| Noo, the horsie's some tired, but the road's nae sae lang; | 11 | ····/······ |
| The sun comes na oot, but he's no in a fang: | 11 | ··········· |
| The nicht's comin on, but hame's no far awa; | 11 | ··········· |
| We hae come a far road, but hae payit for a'. | 11 | ··········· |
| For ane has been wi' us--and sometimes 'maist seen, | 11 | ·······˘/·· |
| Wha's cared for us better nor a' oor four e'en; | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| He's cared for the horsie, the man, and the wife, | 11 | ··········· |
| And we're gaein hame to him for the rest o' oor life. | 12 | ············ |
| Doon comes the water, and up gangs nae stour; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| We creep ower the road at twa mile the hoor; | 11 | ··········· |
| But oor herts they are canty, for ane's to the fore | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Wha was and wha is and will be evermore. | 11 | ········/˘· |
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.