Analysis of A Pastoral Ballad IV: Disappointment
William Shenstone 1714 (Halesowen) – 1763 (Halesowen)
Ye shepherds give ear to my lay,
And take no more heed of my sheep:
They have nothing to do but to stray;
I have nothing to do but to weep.
Yet do not my folly reprove;
She was fair -- and my passion begun;
She smil'd -- and I could not but love;
She is faithless -- and I am undone.
Perhaps I was void of all thought:
Perhaps it was plain to foresee,
That a nymph so compleat would be sought
By a swain more engaging than me.
Ah! love ev'ry hope can inspire;
It banishes wisdom the while;
And the lip of the nymph we admire
Seems for ever adorn'd with a smile.
She is faithless, and I am undone;
Ye that witness the woes I endure;
Let reason instruct you to shun
What it cannot instruct you to cure.
Beware how you loiter in vain
Amid nymphs of an higher degree:
It is not for me to explain
How fair, and how fickle they be.
Alas! from the day that we met,
What hope of an end to my woes?
When I cannot endure to forget
The glance that undid my repose.
Yet time may diminish the pain:
The flow'r, and the shrub, and the tree,
Which I rear'd for her pleasure in vain,
In time may have comfort for me.
The sweets of a dew-sprinkled rose,
The sound of a murmuring stream,
The peace which from solitude flows,
Henceforth shall be Corydon's theme.
High transports are shewn to the sight,
But we are not to find them our own;
Fate never bestow'd such delight,
As I with my Phyllis had known.
O ye woods, spread your branches apace;
To your deepest recesses I fly;
I would hide with the beasts of the chace;
I would vanish from every eye.
Yet my reed shall resound thro' the grove
With the same sad complaint it begun;
How she smil'd, and I could not but love;
Was faithless, and I am undone!
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFEFGHGHDIDIJFJFKLKLJF JFLMLMNONOPQPQCDCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 01111111 111011111 111011111 1111101 111011001 11011111 11101101 01111111 01111101 10111111 101101011 1111101 111001 001101101 111001101 11101101 111001101 11001111 111001111 01111001 011111001 11111101 11011011 01101111 11111111 111001101 01101101 11101001 011001001 111101001 01111011 01101101 01101001 0111101 111111 10111101 1111111101 11001101 11111011 111111001 111010011 111101101 111011001 11111101 101101101 111011111 1101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,693 |
Words | 336 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 30, 18 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 644 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 167 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 36 Views
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"A Pastoral Ballad IV: Disappointment" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41527/a-pastoral-ballad-iv%3A-disappointment>.
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