Songs from The Beggar’s Opera: Air IV-Cotillion

John Gay 1685 – 1732



Act II, Scene iv, Air IV—Cotillion

            Youth’s the season made for joys,
                     Love is then our duty:
            She alone who that employs,
                     Well deserves her beauty.
                              Let’s be gay
                              While we may,
            Beauty’s a flower despised in decay.

Chorus.         Youth’s the season, etc.

            Let us drink and sport to-day,
                     Ours is not to-morrow:
            Love with youth flies swift away,
                     Age is naught but sorrow.
                              Dance and sing,
                              Time’s on the wing,
            Life never knows the return the spring.

Chorus.         Let us drink, etc.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

25 sec read
132

Quick analysis:

Scheme X ABABCCC D CECEFFF D
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 755
Words 85
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 1, 7, 1, 7, 1

John Gay

John Gay, a cousin of the poet John Gay, was an English philosopher, biblical scholar and Church of England clergyman. more…

All John Gay poems | John Gay Books

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    "Songs from The Beggar’s Opera: Air IV-Cotillion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/22775/songs-from-the-beggar’s-opera:-air-iv-cotillion>.

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