The wake
Robert Herrick 1591 (London) – 1674 (Dean Prior)
Come, Anthea, let us two
Go to feast, as others do:
Tarts and custards, creams and cakes,
Are the junkets still at wakes;
Unto which the tribes resort,
Where the business is the sport:
Morris-dancers thou shalt see,
Marian, too, in pageantry;
And a mimic to devise
Many grinning properties.
Players there will be, and those
Base in action as in clothes;
Yet with strutting they will please
The incurious villages.
Near the dying of the day
There will be a cudgel-play,
Where a coxcomb will be broke,
Ere a good word can be spoke:
But the anger ends all here,
Drench'd in ale, or drown'd in beer.
--Happy rusticks! best content
With the cheapest merriment;
And possess no other fear,
Than to want the Wake next year.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
- 39 sec read
- 95 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABBCCDDEFGHFIJJKKLMNCMM |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 701 |
Words | 130 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 24 |
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"The wake" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 21 Mar. 2023. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/31415/the-wake>.
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