Poems
I’ve heard them lilting at our ewe-milking,Lasses a’ lilting before dawn o’ day;But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning--The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
At bughts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning.Lasses are lonely and dowie and wae;Nae daffing, nae gabbing, but sighing and sabbing,Ilk ane lifts her leglin and hies her away.
In hairst, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering,Bandsters are lyart, and runkled, and gray:At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching--The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
At e’en, in the gloaming, nae swankies are roaming’Bout stacks wi’ the lasses at bogle to play;But ilk ane sits eerie, lamenting her dearie--The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
Dool and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border!The English, for ance, by guile wan the day;The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost,The prime of our land, lie cauld in the clay.
We’ll hear nae mair lilting at our ewe-milking;Women and bairns are heartless and wae;Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning--The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
mourning.
Words in this poem
- loaning n.
- An open space between cultivated fields through which cattle are driven, and where the cows are sometimes milked; also, a lane. [From Scotch loan, E. lawn.]
- shearing n.
- The act or operation of clipping with shears or a shearing machine, as the wool from sheep, or the nap from cloth.
- jeering a.
- Mocking; scoffing.
- gloaming n.
- Twilight; dusk; the fall of the evening. [Scot. & North of Eng., and in poetry.] Hogg. [See Gloom.]
- bogle n.
- A goblin; a specter; a frightful phantom; a bogy; a bugbear. [Scot. and North Eng. bogle, bogill, bugill, specter; as a verb, to terrify, fr. W. bwgwl threatening, fear, bwg, bwgan, specter, hobgoblin. Cf. Bug.]
- eerie a.
- Serving to inspire fear, esp. a dread of seeing ghosts; wild; weird; as, eerie stories. [Scotch, fr. AS. earh timid.]
- heartless a.
- Without a heart.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poems is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jane Elliot, Poems, (1727–1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-jane-elliot/a-lament-for-flodden.html, id L16164.
Form and metre
A Lament for Flodden is 25 lines in 7 stanzas. 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.0 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 milking · dayA · loaning · awayA
- 3 ABAB jeeringA · grayB · fleechingA · awayB
- 4 -A-A roaming · playA · dearie · awayA
- 5 -A-A border · dayA · foremost · clayA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I’ve heard them lilting at our ewe-milking, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Lasses a’ lilting before dawn o’ day; | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning-- | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away. | 12 | ·/˘··/˘···˘/ |
| At bughts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning. | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| Lasses are lonely and dowie and wae; | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Nae daffing, nae gabbing, but sighing and sabbing, | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Ilk ane lifts her leglin and hies her away. | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| In hairst, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering, | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| Bandsters are lyart, and runkled, and gray: | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching-- | 12 | ····/˘·/˘··· |
| The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away. | 12 | ·/˘··/˘···˘/ |
| At e’en, in the gloaming, nae swankies are roaming | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| ’Bout stacks wi’ the lasses at bogle to play; | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| But ilk ane sits eerie, lamenting her dearie-- | 12 | ····/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away. | 12 | ·/˘··/˘···˘/ |
| Dool and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border! | 14 | ·····/˘·/···/˘ |
| The English, for ance, by guile wan the day; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost, | 12 | ·/··/˘····/· |
| The prime of our land, lie cauld in the clay. | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| We’ll hear nae mair lilting at our ewe-milking; | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Women and bairns are heartless and wae; | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning-- | 11 | /˘·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away. | 12 | ·/˘··/˘···˘/ |
| mourning. | 2 | /˘ |
Notes from the edition 1
Quiller-Couch's glosses on the hard words, from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900, chosen and edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch (Oxford, 1900; Project Gutenberg #66619)
- Stanza 1 _466._ loaning] lane, field-track. wede] weeded. bughts] sheep-folds. daffing] joking. leglin] milk-pail. hairst] harvest. bandsters] binders. lyart] gray-haired. runkled] wrinkled. fleeching] coaxing. _466._ swankies] lusty lads. bogle] bogy, hide-and-seek. dool]
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