Ballad XII: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
"Come live with me, and be my dear,And we will revel all the year,In plains and groves, &c."
"Come live with me, and be my love,And we will some new pleasures proveOf golden sands, &c."
As for Chr. Marlow, who was in high repute for his dramatic writings,he lost his life by a stab received in a brothel, before the year 1593.See A. Wood, i. 138.
"Thy silver dishes for thy meatAs precious as the gods do eatShall on an ivory table bePrepared each day for thee and me."
"What should we talk of dainties thenOf better meat than's fit for men?These are but vain, that's only goodWhich God hath blest and sent for food."
Come live with me, and be my love,And we wil all the pleasures proveThat hils and vallies, dale and field,And all the craggy mountains yield.
There will we sit upon the rocks,And see the shepherds feed their flocks,By shallow rivers, to whose fallsMelodious birds sing madrigals.
There will I make thee beds of rosesWith a thousand fragrant posies,A cap of flowers, and a kirtleImbrodered all with leaves of mirtle;
A gown made of the finest wool,Which from our pretty lambs we pull;Slippers lin'd choicely for the cold;With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw, and ivie buds,With coral clasps, and amber studs:And if these pleasures may thee move,Then live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and singFor thy delight each May morning:If these delights thy mind may move,Then live with me, and be my love.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- kirtle n.
- A garment varying in form and use at different times, and worn doth by men and women. [OE. kirtel, curtel, AS. cyrtel; skin to Icel. kyrtill, Sw. kjortel, Dan. kiortel, kiole.]
- choicely adv.
- With care in choosing; with nice regard to preference.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ballad XII: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3) Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date, Project Gutenberg ebook #45939; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Percy, Ballad XII: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume I (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45939, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/percy-reliques/ballad-xii-the-passionate-shepherd-to-his-love.html, id L08539.
Form and metre
Ballad XII: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is 41 lines in 11 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 6 of its 11 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 AA- dearA · yearA · —
- 2 AA- loveA · proveA · —
- 3 -AA writings · — · —
- 4 AABB meatA · eatA · beB · meB
- 5 AA-- thenA · menA · good · food
- 6 AABB loveA · proveA · fieldB · yieldB
- 7 AABB rocksA · flocksA · fallsB · madrigalsB
- 8 --AA roses · posies · kirtleA · mirtleA
- 9 AABB woolA · pullA · coldB · goldB
- 10 AABB budsA · studsA · moveB · loveB
- 11 AABB singA · morningA · moveB · loveB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Come live with me, and be my dear, | 8 | ········ |
| And we will revel all the year, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In plains and groves, &c." | 5 | ····· |
| "Come live with me, and be my love, | 8 | ········ |
| And we will some new pleasures prove | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of golden sands, &c." | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| As for Chr. Marlow, who was in high repute for his dramatic writings, | 18 | ···/˘····˘/··˘/˘/˘ |
| he lost his life by a stab received in a brothel, before the year 1593. | 17 | ·······˘/··/˘···· |
| See A. Wood, i. 138. | 4 | ···· |
| "Thy silver dishes for thy meat | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| As precious as the gods do eat | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Shall on an ivory table be | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Prepared each day for thee and me." | 8 | ˘/······ |
| "What should we talk of dainties then | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of better meat than's fit for men? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| These are but vain, that's only good | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which God hath blest and sent for food." | 8 | ········ |
| Come live with me, and be my love, | 8 | ········ |
| And we wil all the pleasures prove | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That hils and vallies, dale and field, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And all the craggy mountains yield. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| There will we sit upon the rocks, | 8 | ········ |
| And see the shepherds feed their flocks, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| By shallow rivers, to whose falls | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Melodious birds sing madrigals. | 9 | ˘/˘˘··/˘˘ |
| There will I make thee beds of roses | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| With a thousand fragrant posies, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| A cap of flowers, and a kirtle | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Imbrodered all with leaves of mirtle; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| A gown made of the finest wool, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which from our pretty lambs we pull; | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| Slippers lin'd choicely for the cold; | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| With buckles of the purest gold; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A belt of straw, and ivie buds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With coral clasps, and amber studs: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And if these pleasures may thee move, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then live with me, and be my love. | 8 | ········ |
| The shepherd swains shall dance and sing | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For thy delight each May morning: | 8 | ··˘/··/˘ |
| If these delights thy mind may move, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Then live with me, and be my love. | 8 | ········ |
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