The Herdsmen Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BA AA BA AC BC AD BD AE BE AF BF AG BG AHH BAAA ABBB BIII AJJJ BAAA IKKLL ALLL BBBB AMAM BLLBB ANNAA BA AA BII AAA BAA ABB| BATTUS | A |
| Who owns these cattle Corydon Philondas Prythee say | A |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| No AEgon and he gave them me to tend while he's away | A |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Dost milk them in the gloaming when none is nigh to see | A |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| The old man brings the calves to suck and keeps an eye on me | A |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| And to what region then hath flown the cattle's rightful lord | C |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Hast thou not heard With Milo he vanished Elis ward | C |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| How was the wrestler's oil e'er yet so much as seen by him | D |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Men say he rivals Heracles in lustiness of limb | D |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| I'm Polydeuces' match or so my mother says and more | E |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| So off he started with a spade and of these ewes a score | E |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| This Milo will be teaching wolves how they should raven next | F |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| And by these bellowings his kine proclaim how sore they're vexed | F |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Poor kine they've found their master a sorry knave indeed | G |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| They're poor enough I grant you they have not heart to feed | G |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Look at that heifer sure there's naught save bare bones left of her | H |
| Pray does she browse on dewdrops as doth the grasshopper | H |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Not she by heaven She pastures now by AEsarus' glades | A |
| And handfuls fair I pluck her there of young and green grass blades | A |
| Now bounds about Latymnus that gathering place of shades | A |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| That bull again the red one my word but he is lean | B |
| I wish the Sybarite burghers aye may offer to the queen | B |
| Of heaven as pitiful a beast those burghers are so mean | B |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Yet to the Salt Lake's edges I drive him I can swear | I |
| Up Physcus up Neaethus' side he lacks not victual there | I |
| With dittany and endive and foxglove for his fare | I |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Well well I pity AEgon His cattle go they must | J |
| To rack and ruin all because vain glory was his lust | J |
| The pipe that erst he fashioned is doubtless scored with rust | J |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Nay by the Nymphs That pipe he left to me the self same day | A |
| He made for Pisa I am too a minstrel in my way | A |
| Well the flute part in 'Pyrrhus' and in 'Glauca' can I play | A |
| I sing too 'Here's to Croton' and 'Zacynthus O 'tis fair ' | - |
| And 'Eastward to Lacinium ' the bruiser Milo there | I |
| His single self ate eighty loaves there also did he pull | K |
| Down from its mountain dwelling by one hoof grasped a bull | K |
| And gave it Amaryllis the maidens screamed with fright | L |
| As for the owner of the bull he only laughed outright | L |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Sweet Amaryllis thou alone though dead art unforgot | L |
| Dearer than thou whose light is quenched my very goats are not | L |
| Oh for the all unkindly fate that's fallen to my lot | L |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Cheer up brave lad tomorrow may ease thee of thy pain | B |
| Aye for the living are there hopes past' hoping are the slain | B |
| And now Zeus sends us sunshine and now he sends us rain | B |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| I'm better Beat those young ones off E'en now their teeth attack | M |
| That olive's shoots the graceless brutes Back with your white face | A |
| back | M |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Back to thy hill Cymaetha Great Pan how deaf thou art | L |
| I shall be with thee presently and in the end thou'lt smart | L |
| I warn thee keep thy distance Look up she creeps again | B |
| Oh were my hare crook in nay hand I'd give it to her then | B |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| For heaven's sake Corydon look here Just now a bramble spike | N |
| Ran there into my instep and oh how deep they strike | N |
| Those lancewood shafts A murrain light on that calf I say | A |
| I got it gaping after her Canst thou discern it pray | A |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Ay ay and here I have it safe in my finger nails | A |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Eh at how slight a matter how tall a warrior quails | A |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Ne'er range the hill crest Battus all sandal less and bare | I |
| Because the thistle and the thorn lift aye their plumed heads there | I |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Say Corydon does that old man we wot of tell me please | A |
| Still haunt the dark browed little girl whom once he used to tease | A |
| - | |
| CORYDON | B |
| Ay my poor boy that doth he I saw them yesterday | A |
| Down by the byre and trust me loving enough were they | A |
| - | |
| BATTUS | A |
| Well done my veteran light o' love In deeming thee mere man | B |
| I wronged thy sire some Satyr he or an uncouth limbed Pan | B |
Jon Corelis Theocritus
(1)
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