December
BA. I pray thee don thy jerkin of olden time,Bring us good ice, and silver the trees with rime;And I will good cheer, good music and wine bestow,When the Christmas guest comes galloping over the snow.
Thus they in verse alternate sang the yearFor rabbit shy and listless ewe to hear,Among the grey rocks on the mountain greenBeneath the sky in fair and pastoral scene,Like those Sicilian swains, whose doric tongueAfter two thousand years is ever young,--Sweet the pine's murmur, and, shepherd, sweet thy pipe,--Or that which gentle Virgil, yet unripe,Of Tityrus sang under the spreading beechAnd gave to rustic clowns immortal speech,By rocky fountain or on flowery meadBidding their idle flocks at will to feed,While they, retreated to some bosky glade,Together told their loves, and as they playedSang what sweet thing soe'er the poet feigned:But these were men when good Victoria reigned,Poets themselves, who without shepherd gearEach of his native fancy sang the year.
Words in this poem
- jerkin n.
- A jacket or short coat; a close waistcoat. [Dim. of D. jurk a frock.]
- olden a.
- Old; ancient; as, the olden time.
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
- galloping a.
- Going at a gallop; progressing rapidly; as, a galloping horse.
- listless a.
- Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless. [OE. listles, lustles. See Lust.]
- sicilian a.
- Of or pertaining to Sicily or its inhabitants. Sicilian vespers, the great massacre of the French in Sicily, in the year 1282, on the evening of Easter Monday, at the hour of vespers.
- bosky a.
- Woody or bushy; covered with boscage or thickets. [Cf. Bushy.]
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
December is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas, Project Gutenberg ebook #37804; 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 Bridges, December, in The Growth of Love, and Other Poems (1873–1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37804, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bridges-shorter-poems/december-2.html, id L01799.
Form and metre
December is 22 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB timeA · rimeA · bestowB · snowB
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHAA yearA · hearA · greenB · sceneB · tongueC · youngC · pipeD · unripeD · beechE · speechE · meadF · feedF · gladeG · playedG · feignedH · reignedH · gearA · 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. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| BA. I pray thee don thy jerkin of olden time, | 12 | ······/˘·/˘· |
| Bring us good ice, and silver the trees with rime; | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| And I will good cheer, good music and wine bestow, | 12 | ······/˘··˘/ |
| When the Christmas guest comes galloping over the snow. | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| Thus they in verse alternate sang the year | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| For rabbit shy and listless ewe to hear, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Among the grey rocks on the mountain green | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Beneath the sky in fair and pastoral scene, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Like those Sicilian swains, whose doric tongue | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| After two thousand years is ever young,-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Sweet the pine's murmur, and, shepherd, sweet thy pipe,-- | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Or that which gentle Virgil, yet unripe, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Of Tityrus sang under the spreading beech | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And gave to rustic clowns immortal speech, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| By rocky fountain or on flowery mead | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Bidding their idle flocks at will to feed, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| While they, retreated to some bosky glade, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Together told their loves, and as they played | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Sang what sweet thing soe'er the poet feigned: | 10 | ······/˘·˘ |
| But these were men when good Victoria reigned, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Poets themselves, who without shepherd gear | 10 | /˘˘/···/˘· |
| Each of his native fancy sang the year. | 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.