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Lyric Poem · Life

The Deuks dang o’er my Daddie

by Robert Burns

1THE BAIRNS gat out wi’ an unco shout,

2 The deuks dang o’er my daddie, O!

3The fien-ma-care, quo’ the feirrie auld wife,

4 He was but a paidlin’ body, O!

5He paidles out, and he paidles in,

6 An’ he paidles late and early, O!

7This seven lang years I hae lien by his side,

8 An’ he is but a fusionless carlie, O.

9O haud your tongue, my feirrie auld wife,

10 O haud your tongue, now Nansie, O:

11I’ve seen the day, and sae hae ye,

12 Ye wad na ben sae donsie, O.

13I’ve seen the day ye butter’d my brose,

14 And cuddl’d me late and early, O;

15But downa-do’s come o’er me now,

16 And oh, I find it sairly, O!

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Quick facts

Poem
The Deuks dang o’er my Daddie
Poet
Robert Burns
Length
16 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Life

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
16 lines · 2 octaves
End rhyme
ABCBDBEB in every stanza.
Line length
Lines run 8-11 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Robert Burns1759–1796
Source record
PoetryDBThe Deuks dang o’er my Daddie by robert-burns, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 6e550ee4312c8669
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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