Tam O’Shanter

As bee flee hame wi’ lades o’ treasure
The minutes winged their way wi’ pleasure
Kings may be blessed but Tam was glorious
O’er a’ the ills o’ life victorious.

But pleasures are like poppies spread
You seize the flower, the bloom is dead
Or like the snow falls in the river
A moment white then lost forever.

This is an excerpt from Tam O’Shanter by Rabbie Burns
Excerpts of text are quite useful for one or two different maths tasks.

      1. Look at the frequency of letters – draw a tally chart of all         the letters from a through to z
      Compare this excerpt with:

      (a)   a different two verses from the same poem
      (b)   two verses from a poem by:
              Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T S Elliot
              or Ted Hughes
      (c)   an excerpt from your favourite author of the same length

2. Try changing letters around and give it to a friend to try to decode, you will need a table to show the letter frequencies to help your friend! e.g.

Xi vrr hgrr hxcr ft’ gxlri w’ nmrxibmr
Nhr ctpbnri ftpurl nhrtm fxs ft’ jgrxibmr
Otpui cxs vr vgriirl vbn Nxc fxi ugwmtwbi
W’rm x’ nhr tggi w’ gthr etknwmtwbi.

Vbn jgrxibmri xmr gtor jwjjtri ijmrxl
Swb irtzr nhr hgwfrm, nhr vgwwc ti lrxl
Wm gtor nhr ipwf hxggi tp nhr mterm
X cwcrpn fhtnr, nhrp gwin hwm rerm.