to worn it like a king" which talk about the summer noon, on better days, when Arthur took the sword from the lady of the lake. .
The tone of Tam O"Shanter is entirely different. The opening of the poem marks the characteristically Scottish contrast between the wild weather outside and the snug fireside within. This introductory section, describing Tam drinking happily at the inn, has a structure of its own, and moves to a climax at the seventh verse paragraph. The first twelve lines give us first a brief but vivid impression of market day at a country town, with the evening closing in, and then an equally vivid picture of the farmer's wife waiting suspiciously at home for his returnThe opening of the poem marks the characteristically Scottish contrast between the wild weather outside and the snug fireside within. The introductory section, describing Tam drinking happily at the inn, has a structure of its own, and moves to a climax at the seventh verse paragraph. The first twelve lines give us first a brief but vivid impression of market day at a country town, with the evening closing in, and then an equally vivid picture of the farmer's wife waiting suspiciously at home for his return. The tone and pace of Shanter allows for a rollocking, ballad like rhythm, which varies as neccesary, which, when combined with Scottish dialect's potential to vary word usage, allows for a humourous read, the humour being entirely based upon the way words are combined with the rhythm to express a humourous meaning. The tone is comic and full of suspense, shrewd yet irresponsible, mocking yet sympathetic; there is a fine balance here between mere supernatural anecdote and the precisely etched realistic picture, maintained throughout the poem. The pace allows for Burns to use his strong personal voice to enhance the affinity we have with Tam. The not entirely serious tone can be seen best at the end of the poem, where you would expect to see some kind of serious point from Burns, but instead we see Burns mocking the concept of a moral with a deliberately oversimplified statement to "warn" against drinking and wenching.
