Cotswold Love
Blue skies are over CotswoldAnd April snows go by,The lasses turn their ribbonsFor April’s in the sky,And April is the seasonWhen Sabbath girls are dressed,From Rodboro’ to Campden,In all their silken best.
An ankle is a marvelWhen first the buds are brown,And not a lass but knows itFrom Stow to Gloucester town.And not a girl goes walkingAlong the Cotswold lanesBut knows men’s eyes in AprilAre quicker than their brains.
It’s little that it matters,So long as you’re alive,If you’re eighteen in April,Or rising sixty-five,When April comes to AmberleyWith skies of April blue,And Cotswold girls are bridingWith slyly tilted shoe.
Words in this poem
- lass n.
- A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cotswold Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Cotswold Love, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/cotswold-love.html, id L23073.
Form and metre
Cotswold Love is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%).
See other poems in iambic 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-B-B cotswold · byA · ribbons · skyA · season · dressedB · campden · bestB
- 2 -A-A-B-B marvel · brownA · it · townA · walking · lanesB · april · brainsB
- 3 -A-A-B-B matters · aliveA · april · fiveA · amberley · blueB · briding · shoeB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Blue skies are over Cotswold | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And April snows go by, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The lasses turn their ribbons | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| For April’s in the sky, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And April is the season | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| When Sabbath girls are dressed, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| From Rodboro’ to Campden, | 7 | ······· |
| In all their silken best. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| An ankle is a marvel | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| When first the buds are brown, | 6 | ······ |
| And not a lass but knows it | 7 | ······· |
| From Stow to Gloucester town. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And not a girl goes walking | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Along the Cotswold lanes | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| But knows men’s eyes in April | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Are quicker than their brains. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| It’s little that it matters, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| So long as you’re alive, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| If you’re eighteen in April, | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| Or rising sixty-five, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| When April comes to Amberley | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With skies of April blue, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And Cotswold girls are briding | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| With slyly tilted shoe. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
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.