The Mummers
Here’s greeting for the master,And for the mistress greeting,And greeting for each gallant ladAnd every pretty sweeting,And greeting for the little childrenDancing round our meeting.
We be your servants all,We be merry mummers;We know jolly winter’s faceThough we ne’er saw summer’s;We come in wi’ the end o’ the year,For we be Christmas-comers.
This here do be Saint George,This the heathen Paynim,Dragon he will drink your healthsWhen Saint George has slain him,This do be a beautiful maidAnd a trouble ’twere to train him!
There’s our mumming endedAnd nothing to distress ye--Surely, we be little lothSince so kindly press ye.Here’s God bless ye, master, mistress,All the house, God bless ye!
Words in this poem
- sweeting n.
- A sweet apple. Ascham.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Mummers is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, The Mummers, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/the-mummers.html, id L21963.
Form and metre
The Mummers is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in trochaic 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-A-A master · greetingA · lad · sweetingA · children · meetingA
- 2 -A-A-A all · mummersA · face · summer'sA · year · comersA
- 3 -A-A-A george · paynimA · healths · himA · maid · himA
- 4 -A-A-A ended · yeA · loth · yeA · mistress · yeA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Here’s greeting for the master, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And for the mistress greeting, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And greeting for each gallant lad | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And every pretty sweeting, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| And greeting for the little children | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Dancing round our meeting. | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
| We be your servants all, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| We be merry mummers; | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| We know jolly winter’s face | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Though we ne’er saw summer’s; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| We come in wi’ the end o’ the year, | 9 | ········· |
| For we be Christmas-comers. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| This here do be Saint George, | 6 | ······ |
| This the heathen Paynim, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Dragon he will drink your healths | 7 | /˘····· |
| When Saint George has slain him, | 6 | ······ |
| This do be a beautiful maid | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| And a trouble ’twere to train him! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| There’s our mumming ended | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| And nothing to distress ye-- | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| Surely, we be little loth | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Since so kindly press ye. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Here’s God bless ye, master, mistress, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| All the house, God bless ye! | 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.