An Orchard Dance Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDEFGFGFHHFFFIF IJKJK FLFLFMFM FFFFNNFFMMOOPQFFMMFF RSFRTTFIFI UVUVWWRRXFXFMYMYXXXX FIFI FXFXFFZFFMA2MB2FQFXX XC2D2C2 FE2FE2FIFI

All work is over at the farmA
And men and maids are ripe for gleeB
Love slips among them sly and warmC
Or calls them to the chestnut treeB
As Colin looks askance at JaneD
He draws his hand across his mouthE
She understands the rustic painD
And something of the tender southE
About her milkmaid beauty flitsF
Her dress of lilac print for guideG
Draws shepherd Colin where she sitsF
Who faring to her lovely sideG
To snatch his evening pension triesF
But skimming like a bird from clutchH
The maid escapes his Cupid touchH
And speeding down a passage fliesF
Not fast enough to cheat his eyesF
Ah sweet lip ways and sweet lip daysF
And sweetheart captures of the waistI
How swiftly still the virgin runsF
She's sure at last to be embracedI
Now Colin fires at kiss delayedJ
And faster flits the red stone floorK
Till Fortune yields the tricky maidJ
A captive at the pantry doorK
-
The farmer with his fifty yearsF
Is not too old to join the funL
He pulls the milkmaids' pinky earsF
And bids a likely stripling runL
To find the fiddlers for a danceF
And in the cherry orchard thereM
A tune shall mingle with romanceF
And love be brave in open airM
-
The village wakens to the blissF
The crones and gaffers crawl to seeF
The country game of step and kissF
Beneath the laden cherry treeF
The chairs and benches now are setN
Old John is wheedled from his petN
The cider cup with beady eyesF
Responds to winkings of the skiesF
The farmer burly in his chairM
Now claps for ev'ry fond and fairM
To foot it on the grassy patchO
While rustic violinists snatchO
From out those varnished birds of woodP
A tune to jink it in the bloodQ
Now Jane and Colin in a triceF
Float sweetly round not less than thriceF
Before their motion draws a pairM
To revel with the dancing airM
The thrush that on his velvet wipesF
His juicy bill protesting pipesF
And somewhat as a piccoloR
Doth race the concord of the bowS
A virgin yonder by the treeF
Rejects a mate who saucilyR
Would press if she might only startT
Her modest homespun to his heartT
Ah sweet lip ways and sweet lip daysF
And sweetheart captures of the waistI
Though like a finch the maiden fliesF
She's sure at last to be embracedI
-
The orchard now is in full bloomU
With rosy cheek and snowdrop throatV
The stars invade the growing gloomU
And rarelier sounds the blackbird's noteV
But in this dewy little parkW
Love burns the brighter for the darkW
And till he use a stricter ruleR
Dear Cicely's cheek shall never coolR
The fiddlers storm a tomboy tuneX
The shepherds closer clasp the girlsF
While skirts the more desert the shoonX
And rebel leap the loely curlsF
The farmer glows within his chairM
And muses on the dancing timeY
When he and she a matchless pairM
Were warm and nimble in their primeY
God bless the man who duller grownX
Can feel the younger heaven anewX
By granting to his maids and menX
A romp by starlight in the dewX
Ah greenwood ways and greenwood daysF
And soft pursuings of the waistI
The cheek must yellow out of praiseF
And bent be those who once embracedI
-
And now they pant against the treesF
And using darkness for their planX
Girls loose the garters at their kneesF
And mend the clumsiness of manX
One virgin thankful for the danceF
About the music shyly tripsF
Her Love's a fiddler and her loveZ
Pops fruit in Paganini's lipsF
Or finding on the starlit treeF
The wife and husband cherry thereM
She hangs the couple at his cheekA2
And hides the stalk with tufts of hairM
The girls are at the cider cupB2
And shepherds tilt the yellow baseF
Until a giddy amber floodQ
Runs kissing over Cicely's faceF
And Dora's upper lip doth shineX
With winking beads of apple wineX
The fiddlers scrape a farewell tuneX
The dancers dwindle in the duskC2
While summer puffs of easy windD2
Bring hints of cottage garden muskC2
-
And thus the revel dearly endsF
With milkmaid's palm in shepherd's handE2
And lovers grow from only friendsF
Where plum and pear and apple standE2
Ah sweet lip ways and sweet lip daysF
And sweetheart captures of the waistI
How fast so e'er the virgin fliesF
She's sure at last to be embracedI

Norman Rowland Gale



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