Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker of this poem is a young man who has parted ways with his lover, leaving the speaker feeling miserable.
Form and Meter
The poem consists of three octaves, which are divided into four sets of rhyming couplets
Metaphors and Similes
The phrase "nae cheerfu twinkle lights me" metaphorically compares light to hope, while the line "warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee" uses a metaphor to compare the speaker's cries to money.
Alliteration and Assonance
The "D" sounds in "Dark despair around benights me" are alliterative, their repetition stressing the inescapability of the speaker's despair, as the "F" sounds in the phrase "first and fairest."
The long "E" sounds in "star of hope she leaves him" are assonant, extending the length of the line and making it sound more dramatic and lamenting.
Irony
The poem's central irony is the inescapable but unexpected fact that, for the speaker, love and heartache can't be separated. Rather than his love being the opposite of his sadness, his love is the catalyst for his sadness.
Genre
Aubade, love poem
Setting
Though the poem's setting isn't directly stated, the speaker's Scottish dialect hints at a Scottish setting
Tone
Mournful, lamenting, regretful
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the speaker, while the antagonist is not a person but a situation—his obligation to say farewell to his lover.
Major Conflict
The poem's major conflict is the speaker's loneliness as he departs from his lover.
Climax
The poem's climax is the moment when the speaker wishes his lover a joyful future in spite of his own hopelessness.
Foreshadowing
Understatement
The speaker's use of the word "fancy" to describe his love is an understatement: while that word typically refers to a fleeting interest, here, he uses it to describe an enduring love.
Allusions
The speaker refers to his lover by a specific name, Nancy—perhaps a private allusion to a woman Burns had a relationship with, sometimes called Nancy by friends.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The phrase "heart-wrung tears" uses the heart as a metonymic representation of the speaker's emotions.
Personification
Fortune is personified as a human here in the lines "Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,/While the star of hope she leaves him?"
The speaker's sighs and groans of sadness are also personified, described as "warring."
Hyperbole
The poem as a whole is hyperbolic, using the word "forever" to describe both the speaker's love and his separation from his lover, describing the speaker's situation as entirely without hope, and using words like "fairest" and "best" to describe the lover.
