Woodmanship Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDCFGFGHIHIDJDB KDKDDLDLMNMOPQPQBDBD JRJRQJQJJRJRSDSDJJBJ JTJTJDJDDJDJDJDJRURU QSQSSVSVDJDJDJDJSWSW DSDSSKSKSXDXSYSYSDSD SSSSSJSJJJJJSSSSSJSJ JJJJJZJZDD R| My worthy Lord I pray you wonder not | A |
| To see your woodman shoot so oft awry | B |
| Nor that he stands amaz d like a sot | C |
| And lets the harmless deer unhurt go by | B |
| Or if he strike a doe which is but carren | D |
| Laugh not good Lord but favor such a fault | E |
| Take will in worth he would fain hit the barren | D |
| But though his heart be good his hap is naught | C |
| And therefore now I crave your Lordship's leave | F |
| To tell you plain what is the cause of this | G |
| First if it please your honor to perceive | F |
| What makes your woodman shoot so oft amiss | G |
| Believe me Lord the case is nothing strange | H |
| He shoots awry almost at every mark | I |
| His eyes have been so us d for to range | H |
| That now God knows they be both dim and dark | I |
| For proof he bears the note of folly now | D |
| Who shot sometimes to hit Philosophy | J |
| And ask you why forsooth I make avow | D |
| Because his wanton wits went all awry | B |
| Next that he shot to be a man of law | K |
| And spent some time with learn d Littleton | D |
| Yet in the end he prov d but a daw | K |
| For law was dark and he had quickly done | D |
| Then could he wish Fitzherbert such a brain | D |
| As Tully had to write the law by art | L |
| So that with pleasure or with little pain | D |
| He might perhaps have caught a truant's part | L |
| But all too late he most misliked the thing | M |
| Which most might help to guide his arrow straight | N |
| He wink d wrong and so let slip the string | M |
| Which cast him wide for all his quaint conceit | O |
| From thence he shot to catch a courtly grace | P |
| And thought even there to weild the world at will | Q |
| But out alas he much mistook the place | P |
| And shot awry at every rover still | Q |
| The blazing baits which draw the gazing eye | B |
| Unfeathered there his first affecti n | D |
| No wonder then although he shot awry | B |
| Wanting the feathers of discreti n | D |
| Yet more than them the marks of dignity | J |
| He much mistook and shot the wronger way | R |
| Thinking the purse of prodigality | J |
| Had been best mean to purchase such a prey | R |
| He thought the flattering face which fleereth still | Q |
| Had been full fraught with all fidelity | J |
| And that such words as courtiers use at will | Q |
| Could not have varied from the verity | J |
| But when his bonnet button d with gold | J |
| His comely cap beguarded all with gay | R |
| His bombast hose with linings manifold | J |
| His knit silk stocks and all his quaint array | R |
| Had picked his purse of all the Peter pence | S |
| Which might have paid for his promoti n | D |
| Then all too late he found that light expense | S |
| Had quite quenched out the court's devoti n | D |
| So that since then the taste of misery | J |
| Hath been always full bitter in his bit | J |
| And why forsooth because he shot awry | B |
| Mistaking still the marks which others hit | J |
| But now behold what marks the man doth find | J |
| He shoots to be a solider in his age | T |
| Mistrusting all the virtues of the mind | J |
| He trusts the power of his personage | T |
| As though long limbs led by a lusty heart | J |
| Might yet suffice to make him rich again | D |
| But Flushing frays have taught him such a part | J |
| That now he thinks the wars yeild no such gain | D |
| And sure I fear unless your lordship deign | D |
| To train him yet into some better trade | J |
| It will be long before he hit the vein | D |
| Whereby he may a richer man be made | J |
| He cannot climb as other catchers can | D |
| To lead a charge before himself be led | J |
| He cannot spoil the simple sakeless man | D |
| Which is content to feed him with his bread | J |
| He cannot pinch the painful soldier's pay | R |
| And shear him out his share in ragged sheets | U |
| He cannot stoop to take a greedy prey | R |
| Upon his fellows groveling in the streets | U |
| He cannot pull the spoil from such as pill | Q |
| And seem full angry at such foul offense | S |
| Although the gain of content his greedy will | Q |
| Under the cloak of contrary pretence | S |
| And nowadays the man that shoots not so | S |
| May shoot amiss even as your woodman doth | V |
| But then you marvel why I let them go | S |
| And never shoot but say farewell forsooth | V |
| Alas my Lord while I do muse hereon | D |
| And call to mind my youthful years misspent | J |
| They give me such a bone to gnaw upon | D |
| That all my senses are in silence pent | J |
| My mind is rapt in contemplati n | D |
| Wherein my dazzled eyes only behold | J |
| The black hour of my constellati n | D |
| Which fram d me so luckless on the mold | J |
| Yet therewithal I cannot but confess | S |
| That vain presumption makes my heart to swell | W |
| For thus I think not all the world I guess | S |
| Shoots bet than I nay some shoots not so well | W |
| In Aristotle somewhat did I learn | D |
| To guide my manners all by comeliness | S |
| And Tully taught me somewhat to discern | D |
| Between sweet speech and barbarous rudeness | S |
| Old Parkins Rastell and Dan Bracton's books | S |
| Did lend me somewhat of the lawless law | K |
| The crafty courtiers with their guileful looks | S |
| Must needs put some experience in my maw | K |
| Yet cannot these with many mast'ries moe | S |
| Make me shoot straight at any gainful prick | X |
| Where some that never handled such a bow | D |
| Can hit the white or touch it near the quick | X |
| Who can nor speak nor write in pleasant wise | S |
| Nor lead their life by Aristotle's rule | Y |
| Nor argue well on questions that arise | S |
| Nor plead a case more than my lord mayor's mule | Y |
| Yet can they hit the marks that I do miss | S |
| And win the mean which may the man maintain | D |
| Now when my mind doth mumble upon this | S |
| No wonder then although I pine for pain | D |
| And whiles mine eyes behold this mirror thus | S |
| The herd goeth by and farewell gentle does | S |
| So that your lordship quikly may discuss | S |
| What blinds mine eys so oft as I suppose | S |
| But since my Muse can to my Lord rehearse | S |
| What makes me miss and why I do not shoot | J |
| Let me imagine in this worthless verse | S |
| If right before me at my standing's foot | J |
| There stood a doe and I should strike her dead | J |
| And then she prove a carrion carcass too | J |
| What figure might I find within my head | J |
| To scuse the rage which ruled me so to do | J |
| Some might interpret with plain paraphrase | S |
| That lack of skill or fortune led the chance | S |
| But I must otherwise expound the case | S |
| I say Jehovah did this doe advance | S |
| And made her bold to stand before me so | S |
| Till I had thrust mine arrow to her heart | J |
| That by the sudden of her overthrow | S |
| I might endeavor to amend my part | J |
| And turn mine eyes that they no more behold | J |
| Such guileful marks as seem more than they be | J |
| And though they glister outwardly like gold | J |
| Are inwardly like brass as men may see | J |
| And when I see the milk hang in her teat | J |
| Methinks it saith old babe now learn to suck | Z |
| Who in thy youth coulst never learn the feat | J |
| To hit the whites which live with all good luck | Z |
| Thus have I told my Lord God grant in season | D |
| A tedious tale in rhyme but little reason | D |
| - | |
| Haud ictus sapio | R |
George Gascoigne
(1)
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