He and She



[HE.]  I know a youth who loves a little maid -
(Hey, but his face is a sight for to see!)
Silent is he, for he's modest and afraid -
(Hey, but he's timid as a youth can be!)
[SHE.]  I know a maid who loves a gallant youth -
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)
SHE cannot tell him all the sad, sad truth -
(Hey, but I think that little maid will die!)
[BOTH.]  Now tell me pray, and tell me true,
What in the world should the poor soul do?

[HE.]  He cannot eat and he cannot sleep -
(Hey, but his face is a sight for to see!)
Daily he goes for to wail - for to weep -
(Hey, but he's wretched as a youth can be!)
[SHE.]  She's very thin and she's very pale -
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)
Daily she goes for to weep - for to wail -
(Hey, but I think that little maid will die!)
[BOTH.]  Now tell me pray, and tell me true,
What in the world should the poor soul do?

[SHE.]  If I were the youth I should offer her my name -
(Hey, but her face is a sight for to see!)
[HE.]  If I were the maid I should fan his honest flame -
(Hey, but he's bashful as a youth can be!)
[SHE.]  If I were the youth I should speak to her to-day -
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)
[HE.]  If I were the maid I should meet the lad half way -
(For I really do believe that timid youth will die!)
[BOTH.]  I thank you much for your counsel true;
I've learnt what that poor soul ought to do!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 30, 2023

1:39 min read
79

Quick analysis:

Scheme aBabcDcDEE fBfbgDgDEE hbhbiDidee
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,369
Words 325
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10

William Schwenck Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist librettist poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan of which the most famous include HMS Pinafore The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre The Mikado These as well as most of their other Savoy operas continue to be performed regularly throughout the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies repertory companies schools and community theatre groups Lines from these works have become part of the English language such as short sharp shock What never Well hardly ever and Let the punishment fit the crime Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads an extensive collection of light verse accompanied by his own comical drawings His creative output included over 75 plays and libretti numerous stories poems lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Gilberts lyrical facility and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since Source - Wikipedia more…

All William Schwenck Gilbert poems | William Schwenck Gilbert Books

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    Poet George McDonald wrote a two-word poem that reads _____ _____?
    A Let's Go.
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