The Shepheardes Calender: Februarie Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A ABBAACCDD AAADDEEFFDDAAGHII AJJGKGGAA AGGDDDDGGJJDDAAAAJJ ALLJJDDMMGGLLDDAAGG AAA ADDAAAAGGAADDAA AAANNDDOOA AADDC ACJLAGGAAAAAAGGDDJJA AJJDDAAAAACCAAGGAAOO PJGGAAAAAAAAQQAAJJKH LLAACCLLAAHHCCJJAAAA LLAAAABBJ| Februarie gloga Secunda CVDDIE THENOT | A |
| - | |
| CVDDIE | A |
| AH for pittie wil ranke Winters rage | B |
| These bitter blasts neuer ginne tasswage | B |
| The keene cold blowes throug my beaten hyde | A |
| All as I were through the body gryde | A |
| My ragged rontes all shiver and shake | C |
| As doen high Towers in an earthquake | C |
| They wont in the wind wagge their wrigle tailes | D |
| Perke as Peacock but nowe it auales | D |
| - | |
| THENOT | A |
| Lewdly complainest thou laesie ladde | A |
| Of Winters wracke for making thee sadde | A |
| Must not the world wend in his commun course | D |
| From good to badd and from badde to worse | D |
| From worse vnto that is worst of all | E |
| And then returne to his former fall | E |
| Who will not suffer the stormy time | F |
| Where will he liue tyll the lusty prime | F |
| Selfe haue I worne out thrise threttie yeares | D |
| Some in much ioy many in many teares | D |
| Yet never complained of cold nor heate | A |
| Of Sommers flame nor of Winters threat | A |
| Ne euer was to Fortune foeman | G |
| But gently tooke that vngently came | H |
| And euer my flocke was my chiefe care | I |
| Winter or Sommer they mought well fare | I |
| - | |
| CVDDIE | A |
| No marueile Thenot if thou can not beare | J |
| Cherefully the Winters wrathfull cheare | J |
| For Age and Winter accord full nie | G |
| This chill that cold this crooked that wrye | K |
| And as the lowring Wether lookes downe | G |
| So semest thou like good fryday to frowne | G |
| But my flowring youth is foe to frost | A |
| My shippe vnwont in stormes to be tost | A |
| - | |
| THENOT | A |
| The soueraigne of seas he blames in vaine | G |
| That once seabeate will to sea againe | G |
| So loytring liue you little heardgroomes | D |
| Keeping your beastes in the budded broomes | D |
| And when the shining sunne laugheth once | D |
| You deemen the Spring is come attonce | D |
| Tho gynne you fond flyes the cold to scorn | G |
| And crowing in pypes made of greene corne | G |
| You thinken to be Lords of the yeare | J |
| But eft when ye count you freed from feare | J |
| Comes the breme winter with chamfred browes | D |
| Full of wrinckles and frostie furrowes | D |
| Drerily shooting his stormy darte | A |
| Which cruddles the blood and pricks the harte | A |
| Then is your carelesse corage accoied | A |
| Your carefull heards with cold bene annoied | A |
| Then paye you the price of your surqedrie | J |
| With weeping and wayling and misery | J |
| - | |
| CVDDIE | A |
| Ah foolish old man I scorne thy skill | L |
| That wouldest me my springing yougth to spil | L |
| I deeme thy braine emperished bee | J |
| Through rusty elde that hath rotted thee | J |
| Or sicker thy head veray tottie is | D |
| So on thy corbe shoulder it leanes amisse | D |
| Now thy selfe hast lost both lopp and topp | M |
| Als my budding branch thou wouldest cropp | M |
| But were thy yeares greene as now bene myne | G |
| To other delights they would encline | G |
| Tho wouldest thou learne to caroll of Loue | L |
| And hery with hymnes thy lasses gloue | L |
| Tho wouldest thou pype of Phyllis prayse | D |
| But Phyllis is myne for many dayes | D |
| I wonne her with a girdle of gelt | A |
| Embost with buegle about the belt | A |
| Such an one shepeheards woulde make full faine | G |
| Such an one would make thee younge againe | G |
| - | |
| THENOT | A |
| Thou art a fon of thy loue to boste | A |
| All that is lent to loue wyll be lost | A |
| - | |
| CVDDIE | A |
| Seest howe brag yond Bullocke beares | D |
| So smirke so smoothe his pricked eares | D |
| His hornes bene as broade as Rainebowe bent | A |
| His dewelap as lythe as lasse of Kent | A |
| See howe he venteth into the wynd | A |
| Weenest of loue is not his mynd | A |
| Seemeth thy flock thy counsell can | G |
| So lustlesse bene they so weake so wan | G |
| Clothed with cold and hoary wyth frost | A |
| Thy flocks father his corage hath lost | A |
| Thy Ewes that wont to haue blowen bags | D |
| Like wailful widdowes hangen their crags | D |
| The rather Lambes bene starued with cold | A |
| All for their Maister is lustlesse and old | A |
| - | |
| THENOT | A |
| Cuddie I wote thou kenst little good | A |
| So vainely taduance thy headlesse hood | A |
| For Youngth is a bubble blown vp with breath | N |
| Whose witt is weakenesse whose wage is death | N |
| Whose way is wildernesse whose ynne Penaunce | D |
| And stoopegallaunt Age the hoste of Greeuance | D |
| But shall I tel thee a tale of truth | O |
| Which I cond of Tityrus in my youth | O |
| Keeping his sheepe on the hils of Kent | A |
| - | |
| CVDDIE | A |
| To nought more Thenot my mind is bent | A |
| Then to heare nouells of his deuise | D |
| They bene so well thewed and so wise | D |
| What euer that good old man bespake | C |
| - | |
| THENOT | A |
| Many meete tales of youth did he make | C |
| And some of loue and some of cheualrie | J |
| But none fitter than this to applie | L |
| Now listen a while and hearken the end | A |
| THere grewe an aged Tree on the greene | G |
| A goodly Oake sometime had it bene | G |
| With armes full strong and largely displayd | A |
| But of their leaues they were disarayde | A |
| The bodie bigge and mightily pight | A |
| Throughly rooted and of wonderous hight | A |
| Whilome had bene the King of the field | A |
| And mochell mast to the husband did yielde | A |
| And with his nuts larded many swine | G |
| But now the gray mosse marred his rine | G |
| His bared boughes were beaten with stormes | D |
| His toppe was bald wasted with wormes | D |
| His honor decayed his braunches sere | J |
| Hard by his side grew a bragging brere | J |
| Which proudly thrust into Thelement | A |
| And seemed to threat the Firmament | A |
| Yt was embellisht with blossomes fayre | J |
| And thereto aye wonned to repayre | J |
| The shepheards daughters to gather flowres | D |
| To peinct thir girlonds with his colowres | D |
| And in his small bushes vsed to shrowde | A |
| The sweete Nightingale singing so lowde | A |
| Which made this foolish Brere wexe so bold | A |
| That on a time he cast him to scold | A |
| And snebbe the good Oake for he was old | A |
| Why standst there quoth he thou brutish blocke | C |
| Nor for fruict nor for shadowe serues thy stocke | C |
| Seest how fresh my flowers bene spredde | A |
| Dyed in Lilly white and Cremsin redde | A |
| With leaves engrained in lusty greene | G |
| Colours meete to clothe a mayden Queene | G |
| Thy wast bignes but combers the grownd | A |
| And dirks the beauty of my blossomes rownd | A |
| The mouldie mosse which thee accloieth | O |
| My Sinnamon smell too much annoieth | O |
| Wherefore soone I rede thee hence remove | P |
| Least thou the price of my displeasure proue | J |
| So spake this bold brere with great disdaine | G |
| Little him answered the Oake againe | G |
| But yielded with shame and greefe adawed | A |
| That of a weede he was ouerawed | A |
| Yt chaunced after vpon a day | A |
| The Hus bandman selfe to come that way | A |
| Of custome to seruewe his grownd | A |
| And his trees of state in compasse rownd | A |
| Him when the spitefull brere had espyed | A |
| Causlesse complained and lowdly cryed | A |
| Vnto his Lord stirring vp sterne strife | Q |
| O my liege Lord the God of my life | Q |
| Pleaseth you ponder your Suppliants plaint | A |
| Caused of wrong and cruell constraint | A |
| Which I your poore Vassall dayly endure | J |
| And but your goodnes the same recure | J |
| Am like for desperate doole to dye | K |
| Through felonous force of mine enemie | H |
| Greatly aghast with this piteous plea | L |
| Him rested the goodman on the lea | L |
| And badde the Brere in his plaint proceede | A |
| With painted words tho gan this proude weede | A |
| As most vsen Ambitious folke | C |
| His colowred crime with craft to cloke | C |
| Ah my soueraigne Lord of creatures all | L |
| Thou placer of plants both humble and tall | L |
| Was not I planted of thine owne hand | A |
| To be the primrose of all thy land | A |
| With flowring blossomes to furnish the prime | H |
| And scarlot berries in Sommer time | H |
| How falls it then that this faded Oake | C |
| Whose bodie is sere whose braunches broke | C |
| Whose naked Armes stretch vnto the fyre | J |
| Vnto such tyrannie doth aspire | J |
| Hindering with his shade my louely light | A |
| And robbing me of the swete sonnes sight | A |
| So beate his old boughes my tender side | A |
| That oft the bloud springeth from wounds wyde | A |
| Vntimely my flowres forced to fall | L |
| That bene the honor of your Coranall | L |
| And oft he lets his cancker wormes light | A |
| Vpon my braunches to worke me more spight | A |
| And oft his hoarie locks downe doth cast | A |
| Where with my fresh flowretts bene defast | A |
| For this and many more such outrage | B |
| Crauing your goodlihead to aswage | B |
| The ranckor | J |
Edmund Spenser
(1)
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About The Shepheardes Calender: Februarie
The Shepheardes Calender: Februarie is a poem by Edmund Spenser. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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