Annie Laurie
Maxwelton braes are bonnieWhere early fa’s the dew,And it’s there that Annie LaurieGie’d me her promise true--Gie’d me her promise true,Which ne’er forgot will be;And for bonnie Annie LaurieI’d lay me doune and dee.
Her brow is like the snawdrift,Her throat is like the swan,Her face it is the fairestThat e’er the sun shone on--That e’er the sun shone on;And dark blue is her e’e;And for bonnie Annie LaurieI’d lay me doune and dee.
Like dew on the gowan lyingIs the fa’ o’ her fairy feet;Like the winds in summer sighing,Her voice is low and sweet--Her voice is low and sweet;And she’s a’ the world to me;And for bonnie Annie LaurieI’d lay me doune and dee.
Words in this poem
- gowan n.
- The daisy, or mountain daisy. [Scot., fr. Gael. gugan bud, flower, daisy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Annie Laurie is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, Annie Laurie, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/annie-laurie.html, id L25282.
Form and metre
Annie Laurie is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -ABAACBC bonnie · dewA · laurieB · trueA · trueA · beC · laurieB · deeC
- 2 -A-AAB-B snawdrift · swanA · fairest · onA · onA · e'eB · laurie · deeB
- 3 ABABBC-C lyingA · feetB · sighingA · sweetB · sweetB · meC · laurie · deeC
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Maxwelton braes are bonnie | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Where early fa’s the dew, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And it’s there that Annie Laurie | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Gie’d me her promise true-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Gie’d me her promise true, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Which ne’er forgot will be; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And for bonnie Annie Laurie | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| I’d lay me doune and dee. | 6 | ······ |
| Her brow is like the snawdrift, | 7 | ······· |
| Her throat is like the swan, | 6 | ······ |
| Her face it is the fairest | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That e’er the sun shone on-- | 6 | ······ |
| That e’er the sun shone on; | 6 | ······ |
| And dark blue is her e’e; | 6 | ······ |
| And for bonnie Annie Laurie | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| I’d lay me doune and dee. | 6 | ······ |
| Like dew on the gowan lying | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Is the fa’ o’ her fairy feet; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like the winds in summer sighing, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Her voice is low and sweet-- | 6 | ······ |
| Her voice is low and sweet; | 6 | ······ |
| And she’s a’ the world to me; | 7 | ······· |
| And for bonnie Annie Laurie | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| I’d lay me doune and dee. | 6 | ······ |
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.