Ballad XVI
Crabbed Age and YouthCannot live together;Youth is full of pleasance,Age is full of care:Youth like summer morn,Age like winter weather,Youth like summer brave,Age like winter bare:Youth is full of sport,Ages breath is short;Youth is nimble, Age is lame:Youth is hot and bold,Age is weak and cold;Youth is wild, and Age is tame.Age, I do abhor thee,Youth, I do adore thee;O, my love, my love is young:Age, I do defie thee;Oh sweet shepheard, hie thee,For methinks thou stayst too long.
Words in this poem
- pleasance n.
- Pleasure; merriment; gayety; delight; kindness. [F. plaisance. See Please.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- abhor v. i.
- To shrink back with horror, disgust, or dislike; to be contrary or averse; -- with from.
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ballad XVI 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 XVI, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume I (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45939, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/percy-reliques/ballad-xvi.html, id L08544.
Form and metre
Ballad XVI is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 5% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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-B-A-BCCDEEDFF-FF- youth · togetherA · pleasance · careB · morn · weatherA · brave · bareB · sportC · shortC · lameD · boldE · coldE · tameD · theeF · theeF · young · theeF · theeF · long
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Crabbed Age and Youth | 4 | ···· |
| Cannot live together; | 6 | /˘·˘/˘ |
| Youth is full of pleasance, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Age is full of care: | 5 | ····· |
| Youth like summer morn, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Age like winter weather, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Youth like summer brave, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Age like winter bare: | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Youth is full of sport, | 5 | ····· |
| Ages breath is short; | 5 | /˘··· |
| Youth is nimble, Age is lame: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Youth is hot and bold, | 5 | ····· |
| Age is weak and cold; | 5 | ····· |
| Youth is wild, and Age is tame. | 7 | ······· |
| Age, I do abhor thee, | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Youth, I do adore thee; | 6 | ···˘/· |
| O, my love, my love is young: | 7 | ······· |
| Age, I do defie thee; | 6 | ······ |
| Oh sweet shepheard, hie thee, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| For methinks thou stayst too long. | 7 | ·˘/···· |
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.