Oh Where Ha’ You been, Lord Randal, My Son – Analysis

Just considering the title, the reader may expect the poem to be about an aristocratic man (“Lord Randal”), who has been somewhere for a lot of time, probably to meet somebody.

The layout shows the poem is arranged into ten stanzas of four lines each. In each stanza there are dialogues between Lord Randal and his mother.

There are many repetitions thanks to similar verb tenses and incremental repetitions.

In the first stanza, the first two lines report Lord Randal’s mother questions to know where he has been. You can notice an incremental repetition: the mother insists in asking Lord Randal where he has been. In the last two lines of the first stanza, you have Lord Randal’s answer to his mother: he tells her he has been at the greenwood and now he is tired, so he asks to his mother to make the bed.

In the second stanza, the mother insists on asking Lord Randal who he met there; as in the first stanza, you can notice an incremental repetition; furthermore, there is a rephrase of the third and fourth lines: the poet wants to create a rhythm. There is an alliteration of the “m” sound to recall the sound of “mother”.

In the third stanza, you can notice the same structure of the first to stanzas: in the first two lines you have the mother’s questions, and in the second two lines you have Lord Randal’s answer. In this stanza, the mother asks his son what his true-love gave him, and Lord Randal tells her that she gave him some eels fried. The latest line is always the same of the two previous stanzas to crate the rhythm of the ballad.

In the fourth stanza, the mother asks Lord Randal who gave his leavings and her son answers that he gave them to hawks and hounds. The latest line is always the same to create the rhythm.

In the fifth stanza, the mother asks her son …. . The latest line is always the same to create the rhythm.

In the sixth stanza, the mother tells her son she fears he is poisoned, and Lord Randal tells his mother that he is.

In the seventh stanza, Lord Randal’s mother asks him what he leaves her, and he responds twenty milk keys.

In the eighth stanza, Lord Randal’s mother asks him what he leaves his sister, and he answers his gold and his silver.

In the ninth stanza, the mother asks him what he leaves to his brother, and he answers his houses and his lands.

In the last stanza, the mother asks her son what he leaves his true-love, and he answers hell and fire, because he poisoned him.

In the poem, the poet uses rephrases and incremental repetitions in every stanza because he wants to create the rhythm of the ballad he is writing. Furthermore, the poet uses a lot of dialogues between Lord Randal and his mother because he wants to underline the relationship which is really confident and goes beyond every imaginary limit: a mother and her son are always linked in some way.