Only
‘Success to every gentlemanThat lives in Lincolnsheer.’
‘The gardener standing by proferred to chuse for me,The pink, the primrose, and the rose, but I refused the three;The primrose I forsook because it came too soon,The violet I o’erlooked, and vowed to wait till June.
In June, the red rose sprung, bat was no flower for me,I plucked it up, lo! by the stalk, and planted the willow-tree.The willow I must wear with sorrow twined among,That all the world may know I falshood loved too long.’
The praise of a dairy to tell you I mean,But all things in order, first God save the Queen.
No doubt the original word in these places was sack, as inChappell’s copy—but what would a peasant understand by sack? Dryden’sreceipt for a sack posset is as follows:—
‘From fair Barbadoes, on the western main,Fetch sugar half-a-pound: fetch sack, from Spain,A pint: then fetch, from India’s fertile coast,Nutmeg, the glory of the British toast.’
Words in this poem
- gardener n.
- One who makes and tends a garden; a horticulturist.
- posset v. t.
- To curdle; to turn, as milk; to coagulate; as, to posset the blood.
- barbadoes n.
- A West Indian island, giving its name to a disease, to a cherry, etc. Barbados cherry (Bot.), a genus of trees of the West Indies (Malpighia) with an agreeably acid fruit resembling a cherry.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Only is in the public domain. This text is taken from Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, Project Gutenberg ebook #649; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bell, Only, in Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #649, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bell-ancient-poems/only.html, id L12017.
Form and metre
Only is 19 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 63% of the lines. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 16% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic hexameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 AABB meA · threeA · soonB · juneB
- 3 AA-- meA · treeA · among · long
- 4 AA meanA · queenA
- 6 AABB mainA · spainA · coastB · toastB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ‘Success to every gentleman | 9 | ˘/·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| That lives in Lincolnsheer.’ | 6 | ······ |
| ‘The gardener standing by proferred to chuse for me, | 12 | ·/˘/˘······· |
| The pink, the primrose, and the rose, but I refused the three; | 14 | ···/······˘/·· |
| The primrose I forsook because it came too soon, | 12 | ·/··˘/······ |
| The violet I o’erlooked, and vowed to wait till June. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| In June, the red rose sprung, bat was no flower for me, | 12 | ·········/·· |
| I plucked it up, lo! by the stalk, and planted the willow-tree. | 15 | ·········/˘·/·· |
| The willow I must wear with sorrow twined among, | 12 | ·/·····/˘··· |
| That all the world may know I falshood loved too long.’ | 12 | ············ |
| The praise of a dairy to tell you I mean, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| But all things in order, first God save the Queen. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| No doubt the original word in these places was sack, as in | 15 | ···˘/˘···/˘···· |
| Chappell’s copy—but what would a peasant understand by sack? Dryden’s | 17 | /˘/˘····/˘·˘/··/˘ |
| receipt for a sack posset is as follows:— | 11 | ˘/···/˘··/˘ |
| ‘From fair Barbadoes, on the western main, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Fetch sugar half-a-pound: fetch sack, from Spain, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A pint: then fetch, from India’s fertile coast, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Nutmeg, the glory of the British toast.’ | 10 | /··/˘··/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.