Being Invited from Calais to Boulogne, to Eat a Pig
All on a weeping Monday,With a fat vulgarian sloven,Little admiral JohnTo Boulogne is gone,Whom I think they call old Loven.
Hadst thou not thy fill of carting,Will Aubrey, Count of Oxon,When nose lay in breech,And breech made a speech,So often cried, A pox on?
A knight by land and waterEsteem'd at such a high rate,When 'tis told in Kent,In a cart that he went,They'll say now, Hang him, pirate.
Thou might'st have ta'en exampleFrom what thou read'st in story;Being as worthy to sitOn an ambling titAs thy predecessor Dory.
But, oh, the roof of linen,Intended for a shelter!But the rain made an assOf tilt and canvas,And the snow, which you know is a melter.
But with thee to inveigleThat tender stripling Astcot,Who was soak'd to the skin,Through drugget so thin,Having neither coat nor waistcoat.
He being proudly mounted,Clad in cloak of Plymouth,Defied cart so base,For thief without grace,That goes to make a wry mouth.
Nor did he like the omen,For fear it might be his doomOne day for to sing,With gullet in string,A hymn of Robert Wisdom.
But what was all this business?For sure it was important;For who rides i' th'wetWhen affairs are not great,The neighbours make but a sport on't.
To a goodly fat sow's baby,O John! thou hadst a malice;The old driver of swineThat day sure was thine,Or thou hadst not quitted Calais.
Words in this poem
- vulgarian n.
- A vulgar person; one who has vulgar ideas. Used also adjectively.
- sloven n.
- A man or boy habitually negligent of neathess and order; -- the correlative term to slattern, or slut. [D. slaf careless, negligent, a sloven; akin to LG. sluf slovenly.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- dory n.
- A European fish. See Doree, and John Doree. [Named from 1st color, fr. F. dorée gilded, fr. dorer to gild, L. deaurare. See Deaurate, and cf. Aureole.]
- melter
- , One who, or that which, melts.
- inveigle v. t.
- To lead astray as if blind; to persuade to something evil by deceptive arts or flattery; to entice; to insnare; to seduce; to wheedle. [Prob. fr. F. aveugler to blind, to delude, OF. aveugler, avugler, avegler, fr. F. aveugle blind, OF. aveugle, avugle, properly, without eyes, fr. L. ab + oculus]
- stripling n.
- A youth in the state of adolescence, or just passing from boyhood to manhood; a lad. [Dim. of strip; as if a small strip from the main stock or steam.]
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- goodly a.
- Pleasant; agreeable; desirable. [OE. godlich, AS. g. See Good, and Like.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Being Invited from Calais to Boulogne, to Eat a Pig is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham, Project Gutenberg ebook #12322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Waller, Being Invited from Calais to Boulogne, to Eat a Pig, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/being-invited-from-calais-to-boulogne-to-eat-a-pig.html, id L09150.
Form and metre
Being Invited from Calais to Boulogne, to Eat a Pig is 50 lines in 10 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 23 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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 --AAA monday · sloven · johnA · goneA · lovenA
- 2 --AA- carting · oxon · breechA · speechA · on
- 3 -ABBA water · rateA · kentB · wentB · pirateA
- 4 -ABBA example · storyA · sitB · titB · doryA
- 5 -ABBA linen · shelterA · assB · canvasB · melterA
- 6 --AA- inveigle · astcot · skinA · thinA · waistcoat
- 7 -ABBA mounted · plymouthA · baseB · graceB · mouthA
- 8 -ABBA omen · doomA · singB · stringB · wisdomA
- 9 -A--A business · importantA · th'wet · great · on'tA
- 10 --AA- baby · malice · swineA · thineA · calais
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 |
|---|---|---|
| All on a weeping Monday, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| With a fat vulgarian sloven, | 9 | ···˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Little admiral John | 6 | /˘/˘˘· |
| To Boulogne is gone, | 5 | ····· |
| Whom I think they call old Loven. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Hadst thou not thy fill of carting, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Will Aubrey, Count of Oxon, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| When nose lay in breech, | 5 | ····· |
| And breech made a speech, | 5 | ····· |
| So often cried, A pox on? | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| A knight by land and water | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Esteem'd at such a high rate, | 7 | ˘/····· |
| When 'tis told in Kent, | 5 | ····· |
| In a cart that he went, | 6 | ······ |
| They'll say now, Hang him, pirate. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Thou might'st have ta'en example | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| From what thou read'st in story; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Being as worthy to sit | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| On an ambling tit | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| As thy predecessor Dory. | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| But, oh, the roof of linen, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Intended for a shelter! | 7 | ˘/˘··/˘ |
| But the rain made an ass | 6 | ······ |
| Of tilt and canvas, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And the snow, which you know is a melter. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| But with thee to inveigle | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| That tender stripling Astcot, | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Who was soak'd to the skin, | 6 | ······ |
| Through drugget so thin, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Having neither coat nor waistcoat. | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| He being proudly mounted, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Clad in cloak of Plymouth, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Defied cart so base, | 5 | ˘/··· |
| For thief without grace, | 5 | ····· |
| That goes to make a wry mouth. | 7 | ······· |
| Nor did he like the omen, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| For fear it might be his doom | 7 | ······· |
| One day for to sing, | 5 | ····· |
| With gullet in string, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| A hymn of Robert Wisdom. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| But what was all this business? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| For sure it was important; | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| For who rides i' th'wet | 5 | ····· |
| When affairs are not great, | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| The neighbours make but a sport on't. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To a goodly fat sow's baby, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| O John! thou hadst a malice; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The old driver of swine | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| That day sure was thine, | 5 | ····· |
| Or thou hadst not quitted Calais. | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
Notes from the edition 1
George Gilfillan's notes to the Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857; Project Gutenberg #12322).
- Stanza 2, line 1 'Fill of carting': we three riding in a cart from Dunkirk to Calais, with a fat Dutch woman.
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