Tam o' Shanter - A Tale

Page one of fourteen reads from the introduction down to "Gathering". In these opening lines Burns warns us that while we are "getting fou" (drunk) we do not think of the distance between pub and home, nor on out wives/girlfriends who sit and wait at home while getting angrier by the minute.

Page two of fourteen reads from "gathering" down to "Monday". In these lines we see that Tam "frae Ayr ae night did canter". We are also given an insight into Tam's character through the monologue of his wife Kate. She describes Tam as being drunk all the year round, in companionship with other associates; in short drink would be the downfall of Tam to the extent that Kate prophesized that he might end up being drowned in the river Doon.

Page three of fourteen which reads from "She prophesied" down to "growing better". Burns introduces the haunted character of the Alloway Kirk where Kate sees another possible demise for Tam. Then Burns reflects on the unhappy lot of the wives showing a sincere appreciation for their predicament. Turning to his "Tale" he first paints a convivial scene of growing drunkenness in the pub.

Page four of fourteen which reads from ""The landlady" down to "their place". Inside the pub the merriment masks the growing storm outside and Burns' dramatic power conveys the abandonment of drunkenness. Followed by the evocative lines which convey the transient nature of such abandoned pleasure, and quickly bringing the reader back to earth.

Page five of fourteen which reads from ""Or like the rainbow's" down to "and fire". Tam mounts his trusty mare to make his inebriated way home as Burns paints a furious scene of hellish weather for him to travel through with thunder lightning rain and wind such that "The Deil had business on his hand". Tam meantime "skelpit on" well insulated by his evenings boozing.

Page six of fourteen which reads from "Whiles holding fast" down to ""in a bleeze". Burns skillfully routes Tam from Ayr to Alloway past several notable landmarks with supernatural connections. Tam is looking out for "bogles" hearing the hooting owls while the storm rages evermore intense with flashing lightning and rolling thunder until he sights "Kirk-Alloway .. in a bleeze".

Page seven of fourteen which reads from "Thro ilka bore" down to "in their heels". Meg comes to a halt at the blazing Kirk resounding with "mirth and dancing", but Tam in his drunken stupor presses the horse forward until he can see the "unco sight" going on in the Kirk. Here the witches dance, not the new fashionable french ballroom dances but the invigorating scottish reels and jigs.

Page eight of fourteen which reads from "A winnock-bunker" down to "murder crusted". Burns paints a ghoulish picture for Tam being played out in the Kirk with the devil taking shape as a beastly black dog seated in an eastern window ledge playing the bagpipes for a motley crew of witches. He decorates the scene with all manner of shocking images of corpses and lurid weapons of murder and destruction well suited to the wild imagination of a drunken Tam.

Page nine of fourteen which reads from ""A garter" down to "and reekit". The corpses are holding up their lanterns whose light enables Tam to view further horrors - a garter that was used to strangle a baby, and a knife used by a son to murder his father. Tam was "amaz'd and curious" as the dancing became faster and faster to the quickening pipes, and the witches sweated and steamed.

Page ten of fourteen which reads from ""and coost" down to "and Wawlie". Burns has the witches down to their flannel underwear speculating that had the dancers been "plump and strapping in their teens" and dressed in fine lingerie, Tam would have had his trousers off in no time! However the witches are so ugly in their hideousness that the poet wonders that they "didna turn (Tam's) stomach". Nevertheless the worldly Tam spies one "winsome wench" amongst the witches who was to be his undoing.

Page eleven of fourteen which reads from ""That night enlisted" down to "and strang". Burns now describes Tam's eyeful, a witch named Nannie (Agnes) who ravaged the land and shore around Carrick. She was wearing her best short skirt which she sported enticingly as her dancing became evermore flamboyant, showing off her figure to the gawping Tam.

Page twelve of fourteen which reads from "And how Tam" down to "and hollow". Tam is entranced by Nannie's gyrations and "even satan glowr'd" being impressed to greater efforts by her performance. So seduced is Tam by her that he "roars out, Weel done, Cutty-Sark" thus breaking the spell and all goes dark. Forthwith the "hellish legion" of witches pour out of the Kirk as Tam takes flight.

Page thirteen of fourteen which reads from ""Ah, Tam" down to ""ain grey tail". Now the witches are after Tam with vengeance in mind while Tam urges Meg on for their very lives towards the Bridge over the Doon where the witches cannot cross. Hell's worst are after Tam with Nannie in touching distance of Tam's horse as they reach the keystone of the bridge but not far enough ahead to prevent the witch catching hold of Maggie's tail and pulling it off.

Page fourteen and last from ""The carlin" to the end. Here Burns draws the moral of the Tale which warns against the dangers of the demon drink and debauchery. It is suggested that the bones of the story are based on fact. Tam's mare one day while in the stable of the pub had its tail clipped by local Ayr scallywags, and Tam fearful of his wife's reaction, invented the story of being pursued by witches which she by all accounts accepted.

Printed in the second volume of The Antiquities of Scotland by Captain Grose. Burns had persuaded Grose to include a drawing of Alloway Kirk in his work which Grose agreed to do, on condition that Burns provided him with a suitable poem to go with the engraving.