The Shepherd
How sweet is the shepherd’s sweet lot!From the morn to the evening he strays;He shall follow his sheep all the day,And his tongue shall be fillèd with praise.
For he hears the lambs’ innocent call,And he hears the ewes’ tender reply;He is watchful while they are in peace,For they know when their shepherd is nigh.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Shepherd is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Project Gutenberg ebook #1934; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, The Shepherd, in Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1934, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-songs/the-shepherd.html, id L02870.
Form and metre
The Shepherd is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables.
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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-A lot · straysA · day · praiseA
- 2 -A-A call · replyA · peace · nighA
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How sweet is the shepherd’s sweet lot! | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| From the morn to the evening he strays; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| He shall follow his sheep all the day, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And his tongue shall be fillèd with praise. | 8 | ········ |
| For he hears the lambs’ innocent call, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| And he hears the ewes’ tender reply; | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
| He is watchful while they are in peace, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| For they know when their shepherd is nigh. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
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.