The Lincolnshire Poacher
WHEN I was bound apprentice, in famous Lincolnsheer,Full well I served my master for more than seven year,Till I took up with poaching, as you shall quickly hear:—Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year.
As me and my comrades were setting of a snare,’Twas then we seed the gamekeeper—for him we did not care,For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, and jump o’er everywhere:—Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year.
As me and my comrades were setting four or five,And taking on him up again, we caught the hare alive;We caught the hare alive, my boys, and through the woods did steer:—Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year.
Bad luck to every magistrate that lives in Lincolnsheer;Success to every poacher that wants to sell a hare;Bad luck to every gamekeeper that will not sell his deer:—Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- shiny a.
- Bright; luminous; clear; unclouded.
- gamekeeper n.
- One who has the care of game, especially in a park or preserve.
- wrestle v. i.
- To contend, by grappling with, and striving to trip or throw down, an opponent; as, they wrestled skillfully. [OE. wrestlen, wrastlen, AS. wr, freq. of wr to wrest; akin to OD. wrastelen to wrestle. See Wrest, v. t.]
- poacher n.
- One who poaches; one who kills or catches game or fish contrary to law.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lincolnshire Poacher 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, The Lincolnshire Poacher, 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/the-lincolnshire-poacher.html, id L11988.
Form and metre
The Lincolnshire Poacher is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets. 72% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.2 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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.
- 1 AAAA lincolnsheerA · yearA · hearA · yearA
- 2 AAAA snareA · careA · everywhereA · yearA
- 3 AABB fiveA · aliveA · steerB · yearB
- 4 AAAA lincolnsheerA · hareA · deerA · yearA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN I was bound apprentice, in famous Lincolnsheer, | 13 | ····˘/˘·/˘··· |
| Full well I served my master for more than seven year, | 12 | ·····/˘···/· |
| Till I took up with poaching, as you shall quickly hear:— | 13 | ·····/˘···/˘· |
| Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year. | 17 | ···˘/··/˘···/˘··· |
| As me and my comrades were setting of a snare, | 12 | ····/··/˘··· |
| ’Twas then we seed the gamekeeper—for him we did not care, | 14 | ·····/·˘······ |
| For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, and jump o’er everywhere:— | 15 | ···/˘·······/˘· |
| Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year. | 17 | ···˘/··/˘···/˘··· |
| As me and my comrades were setting four or five, | 12 | ····/··/˘··· |
| And taking on him up again, we caught the hare alive; | 14 | ·/˘···˘/····˘/ |
| We caught the hare alive, my boys, and through the woods did steer:— | 14 | ····˘/········ |
| Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year. | 17 | ···˘/··/˘···/˘··· |
| Bad luck to every magistrate that lives in Lincolnsheer; | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| Success to every poacher that wants to sell a hare; | 13 | ˘/·/˘/˘······ |
| Bad luck to every gamekeeper that will not sell his deer:— | 14 | ···/˘/·˘······ |
| Oh! ’tis my delight of a shiny night, in the season of the year. | 17 | ···˘/··/˘···/˘··· |
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.