A Ballad on Sociological Economics
A while ago it came to pass(Merry we carol it all the day),There sat a man on the top of an ass(Heart be happy and carol be gayIn spite of the price of hay).
And over the down they hoofed it so(Happy go lucky has best of fare),The man up above and the brute below(And singing we all forget to careA man may laugh if he dare).
Over the stubble and round the crop(Life is short and the world is round),The donkey beneath and the man on the top(Oh! let good ale be found, be found,Merry good ale and sound).
It happened again as it happened before(Tobacco’s a boon but ale is bliss),The moke in the ditch and the man on the floor(And that is the moral to this, to thisRemarkable artifice).
Words in this poem
- carol v. t.
- To praise or celebrate in song.
- donkey n.
- An ass; or (less frequently) a mule. [Prob. dun, in allusion to the color of the animal + a dim. termination.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- moke n.
- A donkey. [Cant] Thackeray.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Ballad on Sociological Economics is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, A Ballad on Sociological Economics, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/a-ballad-on-sociological-economics.html, id L21688.
Form and metre
A Ballad on Sociological Economics is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABB passA · dayB · assA · gayB · hayB
- 2 ABABB soA · fareB · belowA · careB · dareB
- 3 ABABB cropA · roundB · topA · foundB · soundB
- 4 ABABB beforeA · blissB · floorA · thisB · artificeB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A while ago it came to pass | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| (Merry we carol it all the day), | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| There sat a man on the top of an ass | 10 | ·········· |
| (Heart be happy and carol be gay | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| In spite of the price of hay). | 7 | ······· |
| And over the down they hoofed it so | 8 | ········ |
| (Happy go lucky has best of fare), | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| The man up above and the brute below | 10 | ·········· |
| (And singing we all forget to care | 9 | ·/˘··˘/·· |
| A man may laugh if he dare). | 7 | ······· |
| Over the stubble and round the crop | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| (Life is short and the world is round), | 8 | ········ |
| The donkey beneath and the man on the top | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| (Oh! let good ale be found, be found, | 8 | ········ |
| Merry good ale and sound). | 6 | /˘···· |
| It happened again as it happened before | 11 | ·/˘˘/··/˘·· |
| (Tobacco’s a boon but ale is bliss), | 9 | ˘/······· |
| The moke in the ditch and the man on the floor | 11 | ··········· |
| (And that is the moral to this, to this | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Remarkable artifice). | 7 | ˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
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.