The Nymph's Reply
If that the World and Love were young,And truth in every shepherd's toung,These pretty pleasures might me moveTo live with thee, and be thy love.
But time drives flocks from field to fold,When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold,And Philomel becometh dumb,And all complain of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fieldsTo wayward winter reckoning yield:A honey tongue, a heart of gall,Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall.
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw, and ivie buds,Thy coral clasps, and amber studs;All these in me no means can moveTo come to thee, and be thy love.
But could youth last, and love still breed,Had joyes no date, nor age no need;Then those delights my mind might moveTo live with thee, and be thy love.
Words in this poem
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Nymph's Reply 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, The Nymph's Reply, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume I (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45939, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/percy-reliques/the-nymph-s-reply.html, id L08540.
Form and metre
The Nymph's Reply is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 AABB youngA · toungA · moveB · loveB
- 2 AABB foldA · coldA · dumbB · comeB
- 3 --AA fields · yield · gallA · fallA
- 4 --AA roses · posies · forgottenA · rottenA
- 5 AABB budsA · studsA · moveB · loveB
- 6 AABB breedA · needA · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| If that the World and Love were young, | 8 | ········ |
| And truth in every shepherd's toung, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| These pretty pleasures might me move | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To live with thee, and be thy love. | 8 | ········ |
| But time drives flocks from field to fold, | 8 | ········ |
| When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And Philomel becometh dumb, | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘· |
| And all complain of cares to come. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The flowers do fade, and wanton fields | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| To wayward winter reckoning yield: | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| A honey tongue, a heart of gall, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| In folly ripe, in reason rotten. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Thy belt of straw, and ivie buds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy coral clasps, and amber studs; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| All these in me no means can move | 8 | ········ |
| To come to thee, and be thy love. | 8 | ········ |
| But could youth last, and love still breed, | 8 | ········ |
| Had joyes no date, nor age no need; | 8 | ········ |
| Then those delights my mind might move | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| To live with thee, and be thy love. | 8 | ········ |
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.