The Call to London
OH! come to London, young lad,Lots is to be seen!But he said: “I cannot come, maid,Till the cuckoos all be dumb, maid,On the hills of green.”
Oh! come to London, brave lad,Come and leave the plough.But he said: “The blackthorn’s springing,And a mottled thrush is singingIn the cherry bough.”
Oh! come to London, fine lad,Here’s where money flows.But he said: “There’s gold in plenty,Gold enough and more for twenty,Where the kingcup grows.”
Oh! come to London, strong lad,I am wanting you.But he said: “It be a grand sight,When the stars at midnightStretch along the blue.”
Oh! come to London, dear lad,I am fair to see!But he said: “Along of our wayTrees are thick with white may,Wonderful they be!”
Words in this poem
- kingcup n.
- The common buttercup.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Call to London is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, The Call to London, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/the-call-to-london.html, id L22674.
Form and metre
The Call to London is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 -ABBA lad · seenA · maidB · maidB · greenA
- 2 -ABBA lad · ploughA · springingB · singingB · boughA
- 3 -ABBA lad · flowsA · plentyB · twentyB · growsA
- 4 -ABBA lad · youA · sightB · midnightB · blueA
- 5 -ABBA lad · seeA · wayB · mayB · beA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| OH! come to London, young lad, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Lots is to be seen! | 5 | ····· |
| But he said: “I cannot come, maid, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Till the cuckoos all be dumb, maid, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| On the hills of green.” | 5 | ····· |
| Oh! come to London, brave lad, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Come and leave the plough. | 5 | ····· |
| But he said: “The blackthorn’s springing, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And a mottled thrush is singing | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| In the cherry bough.” | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Oh! come to London, fine lad, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Here’s where money flows. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| But he said: “There’s gold in plenty, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Gold enough and more for twenty, | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Where the kingcup grows.” | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Oh! come to London, strong lad, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| I am wanting you. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| But he said: “It be a grand sight, | 8 | ········ |
| When the stars at midnight | 6 | ····/· |
| Stretch along the blue.” | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| Oh! come to London, dear lad, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| I am fair to see! | 5 | ····· |
| But he said: “Along of our way | 8 | ···˘/·/· |
| Trees are thick with white may, | 6 | ······ |
| Wonderful they be!” | 5 | /˘˘·· |
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.