The Country Life: Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CCBBDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LLMMNOPPQRSSLLTTHHUV VWWXX YYTTZZA2B2C2C2D2D2YY E2E2LLF2F2G2G2LL H2H2YYH2H2H2| TO THE HONOURED MR ENDYMION PORTER GROOM OF | A |
| THE BED CHAMBER TO HIS MAJESTY | B |
| - | |
| Sweet country life to such unknown | C |
| Whose lives are others' not their own | C |
| But serving courts and cities be | B |
| Less happy less enjoying thee | B |
| Thou never plough'st the ocean's foam | D |
| To seek and bring rough pepper home | D |
| Nor to the Eastern Ind dost rove | E |
| To bring from thence the scorched clove | E |
| Nor with the loss of thy loved rest | F |
| Bring'st home the ingot from the West | F |
| No thy ambition's master piece | G |
| Flies no thought higher than a fleece | G |
| Or how to pay thy hinds and clear | H |
| All scores and so to end the year | H |
| But walk'st about thine own dear bounds | I |
| Not envying others' larger grounds | I |
| For well thou know'st 'tis not th' extent | J |
| Of land makes life but sweet content | J |
| When now the cock the ploughman's horn | K |
| Calls forth the lily wristed morn | K |
| Then to thy corn fields thou dost go | L |
| Which though well soil'd yet thou dost know | L |
| That the best compost for the lands | M |
| Is the wise master's feet and hands | M |
| There at the plough thou find'st thy team | N |
| With a hind whistling there to them | O |
| And cheer'st them up by singing how | P |
| The kingdom's portion is the plough | P |
| This done then to th' enamell'd meads | Q |
| Thou go'st and as thy foot there treads | R |
| Thou seest a present God like power | S |
| Imprinted in each herb and flower | S |
| And smell'st the breath of great eyed kine | L |
| Sweet as the blossoms of the vine | L |
| Here thou behold'st thy large sleek neat | T |
| Unto the dew laps up in meat | T |
| And as thou look'st the wanton steer | H |
| The heifer cow and ox draw near | H |
| To make a pleasing pastime there | U |
| These seen thou go'st to view thy flocks | V |
| Of sheep safe from the wolf and fox | V |
| And find'st their bellies there as full | W |
| Of short sweet grass as backs with wool | W |
| And leav'st them as they feed and fill | X |
| A shepherd piping on a hill | X |
| - | |
| For sports for pageantry and plays | Y |
| Thou hast thy eves and holydays | Y |
| On which the young men and maids meet | T |
| To exercise their dancing feet | T |
| Tripping the comely country Round | Z |
| With daffadils and daisies crown'd | Z |
| Thy wakes thy quintels here thou hast | A2 |
| Thy May poles too with garlands graced | B2 |
| Thy Morris dance thy Whitsun ale | C2 |
| Thy shearing feast which never fail | C2 |
| Thy harvest home thy wassail bowl | D2 |
| That's toss'd up after Fox i' th' hole | D2 |
| Thy mummeries thy Twelve tide kings | Y |
| And queens thy Christmas revellings | Y |
| Thy nut brown mirth thy russet wit | E2 |
| And no man pays too dear for it | E2 |
| To these thou hast thy times to go | L |
| And trace the hare i' th' treacherous snow | L |
| Thy witty wiles to draw and get | F2 |
| The lark into the trammel net | F2 |
| Thou hast thy cockrood and thy glade | G2 |
| To take the precious pheasant made | G2 |
| Thy lime twigs snares and pit falls then | L |
| To catch the pilfering birds not men | L |
| - | |
| O happy life if that their good | H2 |
| The husbandmen but understood | H2 |
| Who all the day themselves do please | Y |
| And younglings with such sports as these | Y |
| And lying down have nought t' affright | H2 |
| Sweet Sleep that makes more short the night | H2 |
| CAETERA DESUNT | H2 |
Robert Herrick
(1)
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