The Bluebell of Scotland
Oh where! and oh where! is your Highland laddie gone?He’s gone to fight the French for King George upon the throne;And it’s oh! in my heart how I wish him safe at home.
Oh where! and oh where! does your Highland laddie dwell?He dwells in merry Scotland at the sign of the Bluebell;And it’s oh! in my heart that I love my laddie well.
Words in this poem
- laddie n.
- A lad; a male sweetheart.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bluebell of Scotland 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, The Bluebell of Scotland, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-bluebell-of-scotland.html, id L25171.
Form and metre
The Bluebell of Scotland is 6 lines in 2 stanzas of 3 lines each. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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.
- 2 AAA dwellA · bluebellA · wellA
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh where! and oh where! is your Highland laddie gone? | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| He’s gone to fight the French for King George upon the throne; | 13 | ············· |
| And it’s oh! in my heart how I wish him safe at home. | 13 | ············· |
| Oh where! and oh where! does your Highland laddie dwell? | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| He dwells in merry Scotland at the sign of the Bluebell; | 14 | ···/˘/˘·····/· |
| And it’s oh! in my heart that I love my laddie well. | 13 | ··········/˘· |
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.