Mary Morison by Robert Burns
Analysis
"Mary Morison" is a poem written by Robert Burns. The first stanza is where Burns declares his love for an incredibly beautiful and lovely woman. He says that he wishes he could have her and feels poor without her. The second stanza talks about when he first met the woman. The third stanza has Burns begging the woman to dump her boyfriend and go out with him. He asks her to have pity on him.
This poem is written as three stanzas with eight lines in each. It is rhymed as ABABCDCD. This poem is written in iambic-tetrameter and uses alliteration for the woman's name and throughout the poem, sucha s "makes the miser's" in the first stanza and "love for love" in the third.
Poem
Mary Morison O Mary, at thy window be! It is the wish'd the trysted hour. Those smiles and glances let me see, That makes the miser's treasure poor. How blythely wad I bide the stoure, A weary slave frae sun to sun, Could I the rich reward secure -- The lovely Mary Morison! Yestreen, when to the trembling string The dance gaed thro the lighted ha', To thee my fancy took its wing, I sat, but neither heard or saw: Tho' this was fair, and that was braw, And yon the toast of a'the town, I sigh'd, and said amang them a' -- "Ye are na Mary Morison!" O, Mary, canst thou wreck his peace Wha for thy sake wad gladly die? Or canst thou break that heart of his Whase only faut is loving thee? If love for love thou wilt na gie, At least be pity to me shown: A thought ungentle canna be The thought o' Mary Morison.
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