Tam o’ Shanter

Summary

Tam o' Shanter: A Tale is Burns's longest narrative poem and the one he himself thought his best. He wrote it in 1790 for the antiquary Francis Grose, who wanted a witch story to go with his drawing of the ruined church at Alloway in his Antiquities of Scotland. Tam, a farmer, has spent market day in Ayr drinking at the inn with his crony Souter Johnny, the cobbler, while his wife Kate sits at home nursing her wrath to keep it warm. She has warned him that he will be found drowned in the Doon or caught by warlocks at Alloway kirk. At midnight, in a storm, Tam rides home on his grey mare Meg. Passing the haunted church, he sees it ablaze with light: witches and warlocks are dancing to bagpipes played by the Devil in the shape of a beast, surrounded by grisly relics of crimes. Most of the witches are withered hags, but one, Nannie, is young and wears a short shift, a cutty sark, and Tam, forgetting himself, roars out Weel done, Cutty-sark! The light goes out and the whole crew rushes after him. Meg gallops for the bridge over the Doon, because witches cannot cross running water, and she just reaches the keystone as Nannie grabs her tail, which comes off in the witch's hand. The narrator ends with a mock moral: whenever you are inclined to drink, or short shifts run in your mind, remember Tam o' Shanter's mare. The poem is comic, fast and full of the folk belief Burns grew up with, and it is the best example of his storytelling. Teachers should preview it for high school: it treats drinking with humour, includes a gruesome inventory of relics on the altar, and has some innuendo about the dancers.

Top Lessons

• Pleasures that fade

  In the inn scene the narrator stops to say that pleasures are like poppies spread: seize the flower and its bloom is shed. The comedy carries a real warning about drink and delay.

• Folk belief and narrative

  Burns uses the local legends of Alloway, which he heard as a boy, to build a ghost story with a careful structure.

• Mock moral

  The ending gives a moral with a wink. Students should decide what the poem really teaches.

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