The Shepherd's Week : Wednesday; Or, The Dumps Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDDEEFFGGAAHHCCC CCCIIJJCCGKGLCMNNIIO OPPQPCMRRSSCCTTGGCCU UVVCMCCWWXXCCYYZZCMG GFFA2A2QQCMAACCCCAAF FB2B2AAFMYYC2C2CC| Sparabella | A |
| The wailings of a maiden I recite | B |
| A maiden fair that Sparabella hight | B |
| Such strains ne'er warble in the linnet's throat | C |
| Nor the gay goldfinch chants so sweet a note | C |
| No magpie chatter'd nor the painted jay | D |
| No ox was heard to low nor ass to bray | D |
| No rustling breezes play'd the leaves among | E |
| While thus her madrigal the damsel sung | E |
| A while O D'Urfey lend an ear or twain | F |
| Nor though in homely guise my verse disdain | F |
| Whether thou seek'st new kingdoms in the sun | G |
| Whether thy muse does at Newmarket run | G |
| Or does with gossips at a feast regale | A |
| And heighten her conceits with sack and ale | A |
| Or else at wakes with Joan and Hodge rejoice | H |
| Where D'Urfey's lyrics swell in every voice | H |
| Yet suffer me thou bard of wondrous meed | C |
| Amid thy bays to weave this rural weed | C |
| Now the sun drove adown the western road | C |
| And oxen laid at rest forget the goad | C |
| The clown fatigu'd trudg'd homeward with his spade | C |
| Across the meadows stretch'd the lengthen'd shade | C |
| When Sparabella pensive and forlorn | I |
| Alike with yearning love and labour worn | I |
| Lean'd on her rake and straight with doleful guise | J |
| Did this said plaint in moanful notes devise | J |
| Come night as dark as pitch surround my head | C |
| From Sparabella Bumkinet is fled | C |
| The ribbon that his valorous cudgel won | G |
| Last Sunday happier Clumsillis put on | K |
| Sure if he'd eyes but love they say has none | G |
| I whilom by that ribbon had been known | L |
| Ah well a day I'm shent with baneful aid | C |
| 'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid ' | M |
| Shall heavy Clumsillis with me compare | N |
| View this ye lovers and like me despair | N |
| Her blubber'd lip by smutty pipes is worn | I |
| And in her breath tobacco whiffs are born | I |
| The cleanly cheese press she could never turn | O |
| Her awkward fist did ne'er employ the churn | O |
| If e'er she brew'd the drink would straight go sour | P |
| Before it ever felt the thunder's power | P |
| No huswifry the dowdy creature knew | Q |
| To sum up all her tongue confess'd the shrew | P |
| 'My plaint ye lasses with this burthen aid | C |
| 'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid ' | M |
| I've often seen my visage in yon lake | R |
| Nor are my features of the homeliest make | R |
| Though Clumsillis may boast a whiter dye | S |
| Yet the black sloe turns in my rolling eye | S |
| And fairest blossoms drop with every blast | C |
| But the brown beauty will like the hollies last | C |
| Her wan complexion's like the wither'd leek | T |
| While Catherine pears adorn my ruddy cheek | T |
| Yet she alas the witless lout hath won | G |
| And by her gain poor Sparabella's undone | G |
| Let hares and hounds in coupling straps unite | C |
| The clocking hen make friendship with the kite | C |
| Let the fox simply wear the nuptial noose | U |
| And join in wedlock with the wadling goose | U |
| For love hath brought a stranger thing to pass | V |
| The fairest shepherd weds the foulest lass | V |
| 'My plaint ye lasses with this burthen aid | C |
| 'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid ' | M |
| Ah didst thou know what proffers I withstood | C |
| When late I met the squire in yonder wood | C |
| To me he sped regardless of his game | W |
| While all my cheek was glowing red with shame | W |
| My lip he kiss'd and prais'd my healthful look | X |
| Then from his purse of silk a guinea took | X |
| Into my hand he forc'd the tempting gold | C |
| While I with modest struggling broke his hold | C |
| He swore that Dick in livery stripp'd with lace | Y |
| Should wed me soon to keep me from disgrace | Y |
| But I nor footman priz'd nor golden fee | Z |
| For what is lace or gold compar'd to thee | Z |
| 'My plaint ye lasses with this burthen aid | C |
| 'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid ' | M |
| Now plain I ken whence love his rise begun | G |
| Sure he was born some bloody butcher's son | G |
| Bred up in shambles where our younglings slain | F |
| Erst taught him mischief and to sport with pain | F |
| The father only silly sheep annoys | A2 |
| The son the sillier shepherdess destroys | A2 |
| Does son or father greater mischief do | Q |
| The sire is cruel so the son is too | Q |
| 'My plaint ye lasses with this burthen aid | C |
| 'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid ' | M |
| Farewell ye woods ye meads ye streams that flow | A |
| A sudden death shall rid me of my woe | A |
| This penknife keen my windpipe shall divide | C |
| What shall I fall as squeaking pigs have died | C |
| No to some tree this carcase I'll suspend | C |
| But worrying curs find such untimely end | C |
| I'll speed me to the pond where the high stool | A |
| On the long plank hangs o'er the muddy pool | A |
| That stool the dread of every scolding quean | F |
| Yet sure a lover should not die so mean | F |
| There plac'd aloft I'll rave and rail by fits | B2 |
| Though all the parish say I've lost my wits | B2 |
| And thence if courage holds myself I'll throw | A |
| And quench my passion in the lake below | A |
| 'Ye lasses cease your burthen cease to moan | F |
| And by my case forewarn'd go mind your own ' | M |
| The sun was set the night came on apace | Y |
| And falling dews bewet around the place | Y |
| The bat takes airy rounds on leathern wings | C2 |
| And the hoarse owl his woful dirges sings | C2 |
| The prudent maiden deems it now too late | C |
| And till to morrow comes defers her fate | C |
John Gay
(1)
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