Tam o,Shanter by Robert Burns - Essay Example

e language in Robert Burns’s, Tam O’ Shanter, it seems to include an array of events, as formerly stated: “…a comic vision of the world torn between the pleasures of drink, camaraderie, song, dance, and sex on the one hand and Calvinistic duty, respectability, and restraint on the other” (Weston 337). From Robert Burns’s clever use of narration, intertwined with a variety of poetic devices, such as simile and personification, we find ourselves impeccably submerged in the ever changing characteristics found in Tam O’ Shanter.

Now, as for the examination of the poem, we will begin bearing in mind that the conflicting personalities in the narration of the poem are the heart of the tale, and therefore, to understand it we must focus on the tone of the poem. In the opening stanza the narrator emphasizes the notion of himself in juxtaposition with Tam and others “While we sit bousing at the nappy / An’ getting fou and unco happy,” (5-6) as a means of presenting a cluster of men who seem to be conjuring up an unruly night.

Moreover, their unruly event, which seems to be already known as unruly to the them is even further stressed in the last three lines of the stanza when it speaks of their significant others “where sits our sulky, sullen dame / Gathering her brows like gathering storm / Nursing her wrath to keep it warm (10-12). The words”Nursing her wrath” (12) indicates that when the men do finally decide to come home, their women will be waiting to confront them with anger. Next we move into a vital point in the poem, as now the narration has changed its tone in focusing on Tam himself “O Tam!

had’st thou but been sae wise,” (17). Here the nararator forces us to view Tam as a selfish vagabond, or rather mischievous man who listens to no know one, least of all his “wife Kate’s advice” (18) and he becomes less wise and even more disorderly in his nature. Moreover, the final lines of this stanza illustrate a prediction on behalf