Bessie Bell and Mary Gray
O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,They war twa bonnie lasses;They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae,And theekit it o’er wi’ rashes.
They theekit it o’er wi’ rashes green,They theekit it o’er wi’ heather;But the pest cam frae the burrows-town,And slew them baith thegither.
They thought to lye in Methven kirkyard,Amang their noble kin;But they maun lye in Stronach haugh,To biek forenent the sin.
And Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,They war twa bonnie lasses;They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae,And theekit it o’er wi’ rashes.
Words in this poem
- brae n.
- A hillside; a slope; a bank; a hill. Burns. [See Bray a hill.]
- pest n.
- A fatal epidemic disease; a pestilence; specif., the plague. [L. pestis: cf. F. peste.]
- haugh n.
- A low-lying meadow by the side of a river. [See Haw a hedge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #44593; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Arthur Quiller-Couch, Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, in The Oxford Book of Ballads (before 1800), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44593, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/oxford-ballads/bessie-bell-and-mary-gray.html, id L08524.
Form and metre
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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- grayA · lasses · braeA · rashes
- 3 -A-A kirkyard · kinA · haugh · sinA
- 4 A-A- grayA · lasses · braeA · rashes
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| They war twa bonnie lasses; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae, | 9 | ····/···· |
| And theekit it o’er wi’ rashes. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| They theekit it o’er wi’ rashes green, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| They theekit it o’er wi’ heather; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| But the pest cam frae the burrows-town, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And slew them baith thegither. | 7 | ······· |
| They thought to lye in Methven kirkyard, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Amang their noble kin; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But they maun lye in Stronach haugh, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To biek forenent the sin. | 7 | ······· |
| And Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| They war twa bonnie lasses; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae, | 9 | ····/···· |
| And theekit it o’er wi’ rashes. | 8 | ······/˘ |
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.