Shepherd And Goatheard Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDEFGHIHJIJKLMJNO JPQRSCTUVWXYZA2B2C2D D2YYE2F2G2H2I2J2LK2Y L2PM2N2O2P2D2Q2AJQR2 K2S2T2ZU2K2CR2V2TW2X 2TY2V2TX2CY2JV2Y2CZ2 E2PA3IB3C3Y2D3E3PF3G 3H3I3YB3TW2J3J3K3K3L 3L3D2D2IIM3M3N3N3O3O 3C2C2F3F3WWP3Z2Q3R3D 2ZS3YDShepherd That cry's from the first cuckoo of the year | A |
I wished before it ceased | B |
Goatherd Nor bird nor beast | B |
Could make me wish for anything this day | C |
Being old but that the old alone might die | D |
And that would be against God's providence | E |
Let the young wish But what has brought you here | F |
Never until this moment have we met | G |
Where my goats browse on the scarce grass or leap | H |
From stone to Stone | I |
Shepherd I am looking for strayed sheep | H |
Something has troubled me and in my rrouble | J |
I let them stray I thought of rhyme alone | I |
For rhme can beat a measure out of trouble | J |
And make the daylight sweet once more but when | K |
I had driven every rhyme into its Place | L |
The sheep had gone from theirs | M |
Goatherd I know right well | J |
What turned so good a shepherd from his charge | N |
Shepherd He that was best in every country sport | O |
And every country craft and of us all | J |
Most courteous to slow age and hasty youth | P |
Is dead | Q |
Goatherd The boy that brings my griddle cake | R |
Brought the bare news | S |
Shepherd He had thrown the crook away | C |
And died in the great war beyond the sea | T |
Goatherd He had often played his pipes among my hills | U |
And when he played it was their loneliness | V |
The exultation of their stone that died | W |
Under his fingers | X |
Shepherd I had it from his mother | Y |
And his own flock was browsing at the door | Z |
Goatherd How does she bear her grief There is not a | A2 |
shepherd | B2 |
But grows more gentle when he speaks her name | C2 |
Remembering kindness done and how can I | D |
That found when I had neither goat nor grazing | D2 |
New welcome and old wisdom at her fire | Y |
Till winter blasts were gone but speak of her | Y |
Even before his children and his wife | E2 |
Shepherd She goes about her house erect and calm | F2 |
Between the pantry and the linen chest | G2 |
Or else at meadow or at grazing overlooks | H2 |
Her labouring men as though her darling lived | I2 |
But for her grandson now there is no change | J2 |
But such as I have Seen upon her face | L |
Watching our shepherd sports at harvest time | K2 |
When her son's turn was over | Y |
Goatherd Sing your song | L2 |
I too have rhymed my reveries but youth | P |
Is hot to show whatever it has found | M2 |
And till that's done can neither work nor wait | N2 |
Old goatherds and old goats if in all else | O2 |
Youth can excel them in accomplishment | P2 |
Are learned in waiting | D2 |
Shepherd You cannot but have seen | Q2 |
That he alone had gathered up no gear | A |
Set carpenters to work on no wide table | J |
On no long bench nor lofty milking shed | Q |
As others will when first they take possession | R2 |
But left the house as in his father's time | K2 |
As though he knew himself as it were a cuckoo | S2 |
No settled man And now that he is gone | T2 |
There's nothing of him left but half a score | Z |
Of sorrowful austere sweet lofty pipe tunes | U2 |
Goatherd You have put the thought in rhyme | K2 |
Shepherd I worked all day | C |
And when 'twas done so little had I done | R2 |
That maybe 'I am sorry' in plain prose | V2 |
Had Sounded better to your mountain fancy | T |
He sings | W2 |
'Like the speckled bird that steers | X2 |
Thousands of leagues oversea | T |
And runs or a while half flies | Y2 |
On his yellow legs through our meadows | V2 |
He stayed for a while and we | T |
Had scarcely accustomed our ears | X2 |
To his speech at the break of day | C |
Had scarcely accustomed our eyes | Y2 |
To his shape at the rinsing pool | J |
Among the evening shadows | V2 |
When he vanished from ears and eyes | Y2 |
I might have wished on the day | C |
He came but man is a fool ' | Z2 |
Goatherd You sing as always of the natural life | E2 |
And I that made like music in my youth | P |
Hearing it now have sighed for that young man | A3 |
And certain lost companions of my own | I |
Shepherd They say that on your barren mountain ridge | B3 |
You have measured out the road that the soul treads | C3 |
When it has vanished from our natural eyes | Y2 |
That you have talked with apparitions | D3 |
Goatherd Indeed | E3 |
My daily thoughts since the first stupor of youth | P |
Have found the path my goats' feet cannot find | F3 |
Shepherd Sing for it may be that your thoughts have | G3 |
plucked | H3 |
Some medicable herb to make our grief | I3 |
Less bitter | Y |
Goatherd They have brought me from that ridge | B3 |
Seed pods and flowers that are not all wild poppy | T |
Sings | W2 |
'He grows younger every second | J3 |
That were all his birthdays reckoned | J3 |
Much too solemn seemed | K3 |
Because of what he had dreamed | K3 |
Or the ambitions that he served | L3 |
Much too solemn and reserved | L3 |
Jaunting journeying | D2 |
To his own dayspring | D2 |
He unpacks the loaded pern | I |
Of all 'twas pain or joy to learn | I |
Of all that he had made | M3 |
The outrageous war shall fade | M3 |
At some old winding whitethorn root | N3 |
He'll practise on the shepherd's flute | N3 |
Or on the close cropped grass | O3 |
Court his shepherd lass | O3 |
Or put his heart into some game | C2 |
Till daytime playtime seem the same | C2 |
Knowledge he shall unwind | F3 |
Through victories of the mind | F3 |
Till clambering at the cradle side | W |
He dreams himself hsi mother's pride | W |
All knowledge lost in trance | P3 |
Of sweeter ignorance ' | Z2 |
Shepherd When I have shut these ewes and this old ram | Q3 |
Into the fold we'll to the woods and there | R3 |
Cut out our rhymes on strips of new torn bark | D2 |
But put no name and leave them at her door | Z |
To know the mountain and the valley have grieved | S3 |
May be a quiet thought to wife and mother | Y |
And children when they spring up shoulder high | D |
William Butler Yeats
(1)
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