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Home  »  The English Poets  »  Extract from The Shepherd’s Week

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

John Gay (1685–1732)

Extract from The Shepherd’s Week

AH, Colin! canst thou leave thy Sweetheart true!

What I have done for thee will Cic’ly do?

Will she thy linen wash or hosen darn,

And knit thee gloves made of her own-spun yarn?

Will she with huswife’s hand provide thy meat,

And every Sunday morn thy neckcloth plait?

Which o’er thy kersey doublet spreading wide,

In service-time drew Cic’ly’s eyes aside….

If in the soil you guide the crooked share,

Your early breakfast is my constant care;

And when with even hand you strow the grain,

I fright the thievish rooks from off the plain.

In misling days when I my thresher heard,

With nappy beer I to the barn repaired;

Lost in the music of the whirling flail,

To gaze on thee I left the smoking pail:

In harvest when the sun was mounted high,

My leathern bottle did thy drought supply;

Whene’er you mowed I followed with the rake,

And have full oft been sun-burnt for thy sake;

When in the welkin gathering showers were seen,

I lagged the last with Colin on the green;

And when at eve returning with thy car,

Awaiting heard the jingling bells from far;

Straight on the fire the sooty pot I placed,

To warm thy broth I burnt my hands for haste.

When hungry thou stoodst staring, like an oaf,

I sliced the luncheon from the barley loaf;

With crumbled bread I thickened well thy mess.

Ah, love me more, or love thy pottage less!