What the Auld Fowk Are Thinkin
The bairns i' their beds, worn oot wi' nae wark,Are sleepin, nor ever an eelid winkin;The auld fowk lie still wi' their een starin stark,An' the mirk pang-fou o' the things they are thinkin.
Whan oot o' ilk corner the bairnies they keek,Lauchin an' daffin, airms loosin an' linkin,The auld fowk they watch frae the warm ingle-cheek,But the bairns little think what the auld fowk are thinkin.
Whan the auld fowk sit quaiet at the reet o' a stook,I' the sunlicht their washt een blinterin an' blinkin,Fowk scythin, or bin'in, or shearin wi' heukCarena a strae what the auld fowk are thinkin.
At the kirk, whan the minister's dreich an' dry,His fardens as gien they war gowd guineas chinkin,An' the young fowk are noddin, or fidgetin sly,Naebody kens what the auld fowk are thinkin.
Whan the young fowk are greitin aboot the bedWhaur like water throu san' the auld life is sinkin,An' some wud say the last word was said,The auld fowk smile, an' ken what they're thinkin.
Words in this poem
- wark n.
- Work; a building. [See Work.]
- auld a.
- Old; as, Auld Reekie (old smoky), i. e., Edinburgh. [See Old.]
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- mirk a.
- Dark; gloomy; murky. Spenser. Mrs. Browning. [See Murky.]
- stook n.
- A small collection of sheaves set up in the field; a shock; in England, twelve sheaves. [Scot. stook, stouk; cf. LG. stuke a heap, bundle, G. stauche a truss, bundle of flax.]
- heuk n.
- Variant of Huke.
- kirk n.
- A church or the church, in the various senses of the word; esp., the Church of Scotland as distinguished from other reformed churches, or from the Roman Catholic Church. Jamieson. [Scot.; cf. Icel. kirkja, of Greek origin. See Church.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What the Auld Fowk Are Thinkin 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, What the Auld Fowk Are Thinkin, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/what-the-auld-fowk-are-thinkin.html, id L22565.
Form and metre
What the Auld Fowk Are Thinkin is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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-A wark · winkinA · stark · thinkinA
- 2 ABAB keekA · linkinB · cheekA · thinkinB
- 3 -A-A stook · blinkinA · heuk · thinkinA
- 4 ABAB dryA · chinkinB · slyA · thinkinB
- 5 ABAB bedA · sinkinB · saidA · thinkinB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The bairns i' their beds, worn oot wi' nae wark, | 10 | ·········· |
| Are sleepin, nor ever an eelid winkin; | 10 | ····/····· |
| The auld fowk lie still wi' their een starin stark, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| An' the mirk pang-fou o' the things they are thinkin. | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Whan oot o' ilk corner the bairnies they keek, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Lauchin an' daffin, airms loosin an' linkin, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| The auld fowk they watch frae the warm ingle-cheek, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| But the bairns little think what the auld fowk are thinkin. | 13 | ···/˘······/˘ |
| Whan the auld fowk sit quaiet at the reet o' a stook, | 12 | ············ |
| I' the sunlicht their washt een blinterin an' blinkin, | 13 | ············· |
| Fowk scythin, or bin'in, or shearin wi' heuk | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Carena a strae what the auld fowk are thinkin. | 12 | ·/˘·······/˘ |
| At the kirk, whan the minister's dreich an' dry, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His fardens as gien they war gowd guineas chinkin, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| An' the young fowk are noddin, or fidgetin sly, | 12 | ············ |
| Naebody kens what the auld fowk are thinkin. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Whan the young fowk are greitin aboot the bed | 11 | ··········· |
| Whaur like water throu san' the auld life is sinkin, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| An' some wud say the last word was said, | 9 | ········· |
| The auld fowk smile, an' ken what they're thinkin. | 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.