A Pastoral
There went out in the dawning lightA little rustic maiden;Her flock so white, her crook so slight,With fleecy new wool laden.
Small is the flock, and there you'll seeThe she-ass and the wether;This goat's a he, and that's a she,The bull-calf and the heifer.
She looked upon the green sward, whereA student lay at leisure:"What do you there, young sir, so fair?""Come, play with me, my treasure!"
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- fleecy a.
- Covered with, made of, or resembling, a fleece.
- wether n.
- A castrated ram. [OE. wether, AS. we; akin to OS. wethar, withar, a ram, D. weder, G. widder, OHG. widar, Icel. ver, Sw. vädur, Dan. vædder, Goth. wiprus a lamb, L. vitulus calf,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Pastoral is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Addington Symonds, A Pastoral, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/a-pastoral.html, id L11831.
Form and metre
A Pastoral is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB lightA · maidenB · slightA · ladenB
- 2 A-A- seeA · wether · sheA · heifer
- 3 ABAB whereA · leisureB · fairA · treasureB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There went out in the dawning light | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A little rustic maiden; | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Her flock so white, her crook so slight, | 8 | ········ |
| With fleecy new wool laden. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Small is the flock, and there you'll see | 8 | ········ |
| The she-ass and the wether; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| This goat's a he, and that's a she, | 8 | ········ |
| The bull-calf and the heifer. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| She looked upon the green sward, where | 8 | ········ |
| A student lay at leisure: | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| "What do you there, young sir, so fair?" | 8 | ········ |
| "Come, play with me, my treasure!" | 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.