The Shepherds Calendar - July Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEEE FFGGHHIIEEJJEEKKLLMM NNOOKKPPFQRROOSNEETT NNNNUUNNNNEEVVEENNNN NNIIWXYYYIZZNNIIA2B2 EEEENNNNA2B2NNNNNNEE EEZZIIB2A2MMNNEEA2B2 NNEEA2A2EEEEC2C2EEZZ D2E2ZZNNF2F2UUNNZZG2 G2H2H2NND2D2I2I2EEUU EEIIEEIIJ2K2F2F2NNNN IIL2L2EENNEEZZUUEEEE NNIIIINNM2M2N2N2UUII IINNNNO2O2L2L2NNP2P2 NNNN| Daughter of pastoral smells and sights | A |
| And sultry days and dewy nights | A |
| July resumes her yearly place | B |
| Wi her milking maiden face | B |
| Ruddy and tand yet sweet to view | C |
| When everywhere's a vale of dew | C |
| And raps it round her looks that smiles | D |
| A lovly rest to daily toils | E |
| Wi last months closing scenes and dins | E |
| Her sultry beaming birth begins | E |
| - | |
| Hay makers still in grounds appear | F |
| And some are thinning nearly clear | F |
| Save oddly lingering shocks about | G |
| Which the tithman counteth out | G |
| Sticking their green boughs where they go | H |
| The parsons yearly claims to know | H |
| Which farmers view wi grudging eye | I |
| And grumbling drive their waggons bye | I |
| In hedge bound close and meadow plains | E |
| Stript groups of busy bustling swains | E |
| From all her hants wi noises rude | J |
| Drives to the wood lands solitude | J |
| That seeks a spot unmarkd wi paths | E |
| Far from the close and meadow swaths | E |
| Wi smutty song and story gay | K |
| They cart the witherd smelling hay | K |
| Boys loading on the waggon stand | L |
| And men below wi sturdy hand | L |
| Heave up the shocks on lathy prong | M |
| While horse boys lead the team along | M |
| And maidens drag the rake behind | N |
| Wi light dress shaping to the wind | N |
| And trembling locks of curly hair | O |
| And snow white bosoms nearly bare | O |
| That charms ones sight amid the hay | K |
| Like lingering blossoms of the may | K |
| From clowns rude jokes they often turn | P |
| And oft their cheeks wi blushes burn | P |
| From talk which to escape a sneer | F |
| They oft affect as not to hear | Q |
| Some in the nooks about the ground | R |
| Pile up the stacks swelld bellying round | R |
| The milking cattles winter fare | O |
| That in the snow are fodderd there | O |
| Warm spots wi black thorn thickets lind | S |
| And trees to brake the northern wind | N |
| While masters oft the sultry hours | E |
| Will urge their speed and talk of showers | E |
| When boy from home trotts to the stack | T |
| Wi dinner upon dobbins back | T |
| And bottles to the saddle tyd | N |
| Or ballancd upon either side | N |
| A horse thats past his toiling day | N |
| Yet still a favorite in his way | N |
| That trotts on errands up and down | U |
| The fields and too and fro from town | U |
| Long ere his presence comes in sight | N |
| Boys listen wi heart felt delight | N |
| And know his footsteps down the road | N |
| Hastening wi the dinner load | N |
| Then they seek in close or meadows | E |
| High hedgerows wi grey willow shadows | E |
| To hide beneath from sultry noon | V |
| And rest them at their dinner boon | V |
| Where helping shepherd for the lass | E |
| Will seek a hillock on the grass | E |
| The thickset hedge or stack beside | N |
| Where teazing pismires ne'er abide | N |
| And when tis found down drops the maid | N |
| Proud wi the kind attention paid | N |
| And still the swain wi notice due | N |
| Waits on her all the dinner through | N |
| And fills her horn which she tho dry | I |
| In shoyness often pushes bye | I |
| While he will urge wi many a smile | W |
| It as a strength to help her toil | X |
| And in her hand will oft contrive | Y |
| From out his pocket pulld to slive | Y |
| Stole fruit when no one turns his eve | Y |
| To wet her mouth when shes adry | I |
| Offerd when she refuses ale | Z |
| Noons sultry labour to regale | Z |
| Teazd wi the countless multitude | N |
| Of flyes that every where intrude | N |
| While boys wi boughs will often try | I |
| To beat them from them as they lye | I |
| Who find their labour all in vain | A2 |
| And soon as scard they swarm again | B2 |
| Thus while each swain and boy and lass | E |
| Sit at their dinner on the grass | E |
| The teams wi gears thrown on their backs | E |
| Stand pulling at the shocks or racks | E |
| Switching their tails and turning round | N |
| To knap the gadflys teazing wound | N |
| While dob that brought the dinners load | N |
| Too tricky to be turnd abroad | N |
| Needing the scuttle shook wi grain | A2 |
| To coax him to be caught again | B2 |
| Is to a tree at tether tyd | N |
| Ready for boy to mount and ride | N |
| Nipping the grass about his pound | N |
| And stamping battering hooves around | N |
| Soon as each ground is clear of hay | N |
| The shepherd whoops his flocks away | N |
| From fallow fields to plentys scenes | E |
| Shining as smooth as bowling greens | E |
| But scard wi clipping tides alarms | E |
| They bleat about the close in swarms | E |
| And hide neath hedges in the cool | Z |
| Still panting tho wi out their whool | Z |
| Markd wi the tard brands lasting dye | I |
| And make a restless hue and cry | I |
| Answering the lambs that call again | B2 |
| And for their old dams seek in vain | A2 |
| Running mid the stranger throng | M |
| And ever meeting wi the wrong | M |
| Fiegn wi some old yoe to abide | N |
| Who smells and tosses them aside | N |
| And some as if they know its face | E |
| Will meet a lamb wi mended pace | E |
| But proving hopes indulgd in vain | A2 |
| They turn around and blair again | B2 |
| Till weand from memory half forgot | N |
| They spread and feed and notice not | N |
| Save now and then to lambs shrill crys | E |
| Odd yoes in hoarser tone replys | E |
| Still may be seen the mowing swain | A2 |
| On balks between the fields of grain | A2 |
| Who often stops his thirst to ease | E |
| To pick the juicy pods of pease | E |
| And oft as chances bring to pass | E |
| Stoops oer his scythe stuck in the grass | E |
| To seek the brimming honey comb | C2 |
| Which bees so long were toiling home | C2 |
| And rifld from so many flowers | E |
| And carried thro so many hours | E |
| He tears their small hives mossy ball | Z |
| Where the brown labourers hurded all | Z |
| Who gather homward one by one | D2 |
| And see their nest and honey gone | E2 |
| Humming around his rushing toil | Z |
| Their mellancholly wrongs awhile | Z |
| Then oer the sweltering swaths they stray | N |
| And hum disconsolate away | N |
| And oft neath hedges cooler screen | F2 |
| Where meadow sorrel lingers green | F2 |
| Calld 'sour grass' by the knowing clown | U |
| The mower gladly chews it down | U |
| And slakes his thirst the best he may | N |
| When singing brooks are far away | N |
| And his hoopd bottle woeful tale | Z |
| Is emptied of its cheering ale | Z |
| That lulld him in unconsious sleep | G2 |
| At dinners hour beneath a heap | G2 |
| Of grass or bush or edding shock | H2 |
| Till startld by the country clock | H2 |
| That told the hours his toil had lost | N |
| Who coud but spare an hour at most | N |
| And wearing past the setting sun | D2 |
| He stays to get his labour done | D2 |
| The gipsey down the meadow brook | I2 |
| Wi long pole and reaping hook | I2 |
| Tyd at its end amid the streams | E |
| That glitters wi the hot sunbeams | E |
| Reachs and cuts the bulrush down | U |
| And hawks them round each neighboring town | U |
| Packd at his back or tyd in loads | E |
| On asses down the dusty roads | E |
| He jogs and shouts from door to door | I |
| His well known note of calling oer | I |
| Offering to huswives cheap repairs | E |
| Mending their broken bottomd chairs | E |
| Wi step half walk half dance and eye | I |
| Ready to smile on passers bye | I |
| Wi load well suiting weather warm | J2 |
| Tuckd carlessly beneath his arm | K2 |
| Or peeping coat and side between | F2 |
| In woolen bag of faded green | F2 |
| Half conseald and half displayd | N |
| A purpose tell tale to his trade | N |
| The gipsey fiddler jogs away | N |
| To village feast and holiday | N |
| Scraping in public house to trye | I |
| What beer his music will supply | I |
| From clowns who happy wi the din | L2 |
| Dance their hand naild hilos thin | L2 |
| Along the roads in passing crowds | E |
| Followd by dust like smoaking clouds | E |
| Scotch droves of beast a little breed | N |
| In swelterd weary mood proceed | N |
| A patient race from scottish hills | E |
| To fatten by our pasture rills | E |
| Lean wi the wants of mountain soil | Z |
| But short and stout for travels toil | Z |
| Wi cockd up horns and curling crown | U |
| And dewlap bosom hanging down | U |
| Followd by slowly pacing swains | E |
| Wild to our rushy flats and plains | E |
| At whom the shepherds dog will rise | E |
| And shake himself and in supprise | E |
| Draw back and waffle in affright | N |
| Barking the traveller out of sight | N |
| And mowers oer their scythes will bear | I |
| Upon their uncooth dress to stare | I |
| And shepherds as they trample bye | I |
| Leaves oer their hooks a wondering eye | I |
| To witness men so oddly clad | N |
| In petticoats of banded plad | N |
| Wi blankets oer their shoulders slung | M2 |
| To camp at night the fields among | M2 |
| When they for rest on commons stop | N2 |
| And blue cap like a stocking top | N2 |
| Cockt oer their faces summer brown | U |
| Wi scarlet tazzeles on the crown | U |
| Rude patterns of the thistle flower | I |
| Untrickd and open to the shower | I |
| And honest faces fresh and free | I |
| That breath of mountain liberty | I |
| The pindar on the sabbath day | N |
| Soon as the darkness waxes grey | N |
| Before one sun beam oer the ground | N |
| Spindles its light and shadow round | N |
| Goes round the fields at early morn | O2 |
| To see what stock are in the corn | O2 |
| To see what chances sheep may win | L2 |
| Thro gaps the gipsey pilfers thin | L2 |
| Or if theyve forcd a restless way | N |
| By rubbing at a loosend tray | N |
| Or nuzling colt that trys to catch | P2 |
| A gate at night left off the latch | P2 |
| By traveller seeking home in haste | N |
| Or the clown by fareys chas'd | N |
| That listning while he makes a stand | N |
| Opens each gat | N |
John Clare
(1)
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About The Shepherds Calendar - July
The Shepherds Calendar - July is a poem by John Clare. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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