To be best enjoyed and appreciated the poetry should be read aloud in performance.Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,Īn oft sung modern version of this lovely sung is appendedĪhhhh, my favorite Robert Burns poem It definately speaks to me.and Eddi Reader does a great job with the song version What makes Burns' poetry so compelling is the rhythmic, musical and distinctively Scottish sound of the words, for example ‘fare-thee-weel’ and ‘ilka joy’. In the first and last stanzas he refers to ‘heart-wrung tears’ and ‘warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee.’ So, it is a circular narrative, the beginning matching the end. Images of light are juxtaposed with dark. The poet also ends his lines with feminine rhyme, that is the rhyme is made by the unstressed syllables.īurns uses cosmic imagery, ‘Fortune’ and a ‘star of hope’. The metre puts a stress on the first syllable of every line, but ends with an unstressed syllable, known as feminine endings, lending the poem a sad, falling rhythm. The voice is the first-person speaker, the poet, addressing the second-person ‘thee’, his lover. The metre is iambic tetrameter, that is, four metric feet per line, a iamb being one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. There is a structured rhyme-scheme, couplets of mainly perfect rhyme though just one consonant rhyme, ‘her’ and ‘ever’, in stanza two. The poem comprises three eight-lined stanzas. Burns' poetry is characterised by musicality rhythm and repetition that have resulted in so many of his poems being set to music. Burns conveys the finality of this parting and the effect it is having upon him, by paying tribute to Nancy, declaring that ‘Naething could resist my Nancy!’ There is certainly an element of irony in the use of ‘my’, and given the sense of loss he is experiencing.įinally Burns writes with passion, though also resignation and generosity, even though he talks of ‘heart-wrung tears’ and ‘sighs and groans’. In 1791, Agnes, referred to as Nancy in the poem, left Scotland to travel to Jamaica to attempt a reconciliation with her husband. The woman is believed to be Agnes Macelhose, married but separated from her husband, so the relationship was kept secret. Burns’s poem explores the pain of parting and lost love.

Ae fond kiss robert burns