The Yellow Mustard
Oh! ye that prink it to and fro,In pointed flounce and furbelow,What have ye known, what can ye knowThat have not seen the mustard grow?
The yellow mustard is no lessThan God’s good gift to loneliness;And he was sent in gorgeous pressTo jangle keys at my distress.
I heard the throstle call again,Come hither, Pain! come hither, Pain!Till all my shameless feet were fainTo wander through the summer rain.
And far apart from human place,And flaming like a vast disgrace,There struck me blinding in the faceThe livery of the mustard race.
To see the yellow mustard growBeyond the town, above, below;Beyond the purple houses, oh!To see the yellow mustard grow!
Words in this poem
- prink v. i.
- To dress or adjust one's self for show; to prank. [Probably a nasalized form of prick. See Prick, v. t., and cf. Prig, Prank.]
- furbelow n.
- A plaited or gathered flounce on a woman's garment. [Prov. F. farbala, equiv. to F. falbala, It. falbalà.]
- loneliness n.
- The condition of being lonely; solitude; seclusion.
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- jangle v. i.
- To sound harshly or discordantly, as bells out of tune. [OE. janglen to quarrel, OF. jangler to rail, quarrel; of Dutch or German origin; cf. D. jangelen, janken, to whimper, chide, brawl, quarrel.]
- throstle n.
- The song thrush. See under Song. [OE. throsel, AS. , ; akin to MHG. trostel, G. drossel, Icel. , Sw. trast, Lith. strazdas, L. turdus. *238. Cf. Thrush the bird.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Yellow Mustard 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, The Yellow Mustard, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/the-yellow-mustard.html, id L21672.
Form and metre
The Yellow Mustard is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 A-AA froA · furbelow · knowA · growA
- 2 AAAA lessA · lonelinessA · pressA · distressA
- 3 AAAA againA · painA · fainA · rainA
- 4 AAAA placeA · disgraceA · faceA · raceA
- 5 AAAA growA · belowA · ohA · growA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! ye that prink it to and fro, | 8 | ········ |
| In pointed flounce and furbelow, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| What have ye known, what can ye know | 8 | ········ |
| That have not seen the mustard grow? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The yellow mustard is no less | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Than God’s good gift to loneliness; | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And he was sent in gorgeous press | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To jangle keys at my distress. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| I heard the throstle call again, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Come hither, Pain! come hither, Pain! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Till all my shameless feet were fain | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To wander through the summer rain. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And far apart from human place, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And flaming like a vast disgrace, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| There struck me blinding in the face | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The livery of the mustard race. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To see the yellow mustard grow | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Beyond the town, above, below; | 8 | ········ |
| Beyond the purple houses, oh! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To see the yellow mustard grow! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
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.