A Bucolic, Or Discourse Of Neatherds Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAA BB CCDC EE FGG FHH AB AB II J KLKM DD NNNN OO PQQM LR SSSS TT| Come blitheful neatherds let us lay | A |
| A wager who the best shall play | A |
| Of thee or I the roundelay | A |
| That fits the business of the day | A |
| - | |
| Chor And Lalage the judge shall be | B |
| To give the prize to thee or me | B |
| - | |
| Content begin and I will bet | C |
| A heifer smooth and black as jet | C |
| In every part alike complete | D |
| And wanton as a kid as yet | C |
| - | |
| Chor And Lalage with cow like eyes | E |
| Shall be disposeress of the prize | E |
| - | |
| Against thy heifer I will here | F |
| Lay to thy stake a lusty steer | G |
| With gilded horns and burnish'd clear | G |
| - | |
| Chor Why then begin and let us hear | F |
| The soft the sweet the mellow note | H |
| That gently purls from either's oat | H |
| - | |
| The stakes are laid let's now apply | A |
| Each one to make his melody | B |
| - | |
| Lal The equal umpire shall be I | A |
| Who'll hear and so judge righteously | B |
| - | |
| Chor Much time is spent in prate begin | I |
| And sooner play the sooner win | I |
| - | |
| Neatherd plays | J |
| - | |
| That's sweetly touch'd I must confess | K |
| Thou art a man of worthiness | L |
| But hark how I can now express | K |
| My love unto my neatherdess He sings | M |
| - | |
| Chor A sugar'd note and sound as sweet | D |
| As kine when they at milking meet | D |
| - | |
| Now for to win thy heifer fair | N |
| I'll strike thee such a nimble air | N |
| That thou shalt say thyself 'tis rare | N |
| And title me without compare | N |
| - | |
| Chor Lay by a while your pipes and rest | O |
| Since both have here deserved best | O |
| - | |
| To get thy steerling once again | P |
| I'll play thee such another strain | Q |
| That thou shalt swear my pipe does reign | Q |
| Over thine oat as sovereign He sings | M |
| - | |
| Chor And Lalage shall tell by this | L |
| Whose now the prize and wager is | R |
| - | |
| Give me the prize The day is mine | S |
| Not so my pipe has silenc'd thine | S |
| And hadst thou wager'd twenty kine | S |
| They were mine own Lal In love combine | S |
| - | |
| Chor And lay ye down your pipes together | T |
| As weary not o'ercome by either | T |
Robert Herrick
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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