The Lament of the Border Widow
My love he built me a bonny bower,And clad it a’ wi’ lilye flour;A brawer bower ye ne’er did see,Than my true love he built for me.
There came a man, by middle day,He spied his sport, and went away;And brought the King that very night,Who brake my bower, and slew my knight.
He slew my knight, to me sae dear;He slew my knight, and poin’d his gear;My servants all for life did flee,And left me in extremitie.
I sew’d his sheet, making my mane;I watch’d the corpse, myself alane;I watch’d his body, night and day;No living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back,And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sat;I digg’d a grave, and laid him in,And happ’d him with the sod sae green.
But think na ye my heart was sair,When I laid the moul’ on his yellow hair;O think na ye my heart was wae,When I turn’d about, away to gae?
Nae living man I’ll love again,Since that my lovely knight is slain;Wi’ ae lock of his yellow hairI’ll chain my heart for evermair.
Words in this poem
- bonny a.
- Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful. [OE. boni, prob. fr. F. bon, fem. bonne, good, fr. L. bonus good. See Bounty, and cf. Bonus, Boon.]
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- corpse n.
- A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
- whiles conj.
- During the time that; while. Chaucer. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lament of the Border Widow 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, The Lament of the Border Widow, in The Oxford Book of Ballads (before 1800), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44593, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/oxford-ballads/the-lament-of-the-border-widow.html, id L08501.
Form and metre
The Lament of the Border Widow is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends 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 AABB bowerA · flourA · seeB · meB
- 2 AABB dayA · awayA · nightB · knightB
- 3 AA-- dearA · gearA · flee · extremitie
- 4 AABB maneA · alaneA · dayB · wayB
- 5 --AA back · sat · inA · greenA
- 6 AA-- sairA · hairA · wae · gae
- 7 AABB againA · slainA · hairB · evermairB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My love he built me a bonny bower, | 9 | ······/˘/ |
| And clad it a’ wi’ lilye flour; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| A brawer bower ye ne’er did see, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Than my true love he built for me. | 8 | ········ |
| There came a man, by middle day, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He spied his sport, and went away; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And brought the King that very night, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who brake my bower, and slew my knight. | 8 | ···/···· |
| He slew my knight, to me sae dear; | 8 | ········ |
| He slew my knight, and poin’d his gear; | 8 | ········ |
| My servants all for life did flee, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And left me in extremitie. | 8 | ········ |
| I sew’d his sheet, making my mane; | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| I watch’d the corpse, myself alane; | 8 | ·····/˘/ |
| I watch’d his body, night and day; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No living creature came that way. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I took his body on my back, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sat; | 8 | ········ |
| I digg’d a grave, and laid him in, | 8 | ········ |
| And happ’d him with the sod sae green. | 8 | ········ |
| But think na ye my heart was sair, | 8 | ········ |
| When I laid the moul’ on his yellow hair; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| O think na ye my heart was wae, | 8 | ········ |
| When I turn’d about, away to gae? | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| Nae living man I’ll love again, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Since that my lovely knight is slain; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Wi’ ae lock of his yellow hair | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I’ll chain my heart for evermair. | 8 | ········ |
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