STANZA 2: LINES 5-8

5 So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, Lines 5 - 6

• The first image, the rose,
6 So deep in luve am I;
connected beauty with
7 And I will luve thee still, my dear, impermanence, lines 5-6 connect
beauty with permanence
8 Till a’ the seas gang dry.
• Constructed with parallel
phrasing “So” → description of a
person—first the beloved, and
then the speaker
• Because the beloved is so
beautiful that the speaker has
developed such deep feelings of
love for her.
 STANZA 2: LINES 5-8
5 So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, Lines 7 - 8
• Promise: Feelings will not only last a
6 So deep in luve am I; long time, but will last forever: until
7 And I will luve thee still, my dear, the seas themselves have gone dry
→ Hyperbole
8 Till a’ the seas gang dry.
→ Parallel image from the natural
world: Rose - Sea
• The love’s inspired by the beauty, but
will endure even when that beauty’s
gone.
• Impermanent inspired permanent
(beauty+youth) (love+devotion)
→ Paradox
 STANZA 2: LINES 5-8
5 So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
6 So deep in luve am I;
7 And I will luve thee still, my dear,
8 Till a’ the seas gang dry.
• Robert Burns’ style: Anglo-Scots,
standard English and the Scottish
dialect.
“Bonnie”=“beautiful”; “lass”=“girl”;
“gang”=“go”; “luve”=“love”; “art
thou”=“are you”; “thee”=“you”
• A sense of harmony in the stanza
+"So fair" parallels "so deep";
"my bonnie lass" parallels "my dear."
+The /ill/ sound repeats in "will,"
"still," and "till"
 STANZA 3: LINES 9-12
9 Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, • ANADIPLOSIS: Line 9 repeated the line
8: "Till a' the seas gang dry" → gives
10 And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; additional weight to promise.
• IMAGERY:
11 I will love thee still, my dear,
Sea drying - Rock melting-Sand running out
12 While the sands o’ life shall run.
(water) (land masses)
→passage of time + processes of aging
→ speaker promised the beloved that human beings + natural elements
his or her love will last for all of →Her youth and beauty will disappear like
time. The third quatrain make this the seas, the rocks and sands (but much
promise more tangible and concrete more quickly). Nevertheless, the speaker
still promises to love her even as she ages
with images that represent the great over time.
lengths of time
 STANZA 3: LINES 9-12
9 Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, • In fact, he will love her even until the
point of death
10 And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; →Metaphor: “sand o’ life” - “an hourglass”
11 I will love thee still, my dear, →For: the span of one person's life, all life
on the planet
12While the sands o’ life shall run.
→painful than the first excitement when
love is "newly sprung"
→true love: initial joy+later struggles.
Promising to love the beloved "while the
sands o' life shall run" echoes the promise in
→ HYPERBOLE: not just until the end one traditional marriage vow to love the
of their lives, but until the end of all other "till death do us part."
life on the entire planet.
 STANZA 3: LINES 9-12
9 Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
10 And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
11 I will love thee still, my dear,
12 While the sands o’ life shall run.
•EPISTROPHE: "my dear" (lines 7, 9, and
11): the constancy of love; repeated at the
end of a line→a miniature refrain for the
poem.
• A sense of harmony in the stanza
+ The /ill/ sound repeats in "will,"
"still," and "till"
+The /l/ sound repeats in "Till," "melt,"
"will," "love," "still," "While," "life," and
"shall."