Oh Where Ha'you Been, Lord Randal, my Son
Taking the title into consideration, the poem may be about where an aristocratic man
(“lord”) has been (“where ha'you been”). I can see that it is a poem because it is written in lines.
It is arranged into ten stanzas of quatrains: in my opinion, as this poem is a ballad, this uniformity
is used to respect the rhythm.
After a first reading, I noticed that in all the stanzas there are some repetitions:
“Lord Randal my son”, “my handsome young man”, “mother, mak my bed soon”, “and fain wad lie doon”.
Besides, in the first five stanzas there is the repetion of “For I'm wearied wi'hunting”
which changes into “For I'm sick at the heart” in the last five stanzas. All these repetitions
help to highlight the great love of the mother for her son and Lord Randal's love for his girlfriend.
In the first five stanzas, Lord Randal's mother wants to know where her son has been.
He answers that he has been at the greenwood and that he is very tired with hunting and wants
to go to bed. He also tells his mother that, at the greenwood, he met his true-love who gave him
“Eels fried” to eat. Finally, he explains that his hawks and hounds ate his leavings and died.
In the last five stanzas, the reader realizes that Lord Randal has been poisoned and will die soon.
Lord Randal's mother asks him what he is going to leave to his family. He answers that he is
leaving twenty-four milk cows to her, his gold and silver to his sister, his houses and lands to his
brother. Finally his mother wants to know what he wants to leave to his true-love.
He answers that he wants to leave “hell and fire”: it seems that Lord Randal wants to take
vengeance on his true-love who has poisoned him.
The rhyme scheme in all the stanzas is A-B-C-C. In my opinion, this scheme gives a sense of
refrain to the ballad.