Living

The Wake.

by Robert Herrick 1591–1674

From Hesperides (1648)

Living

COme Anthea let us two
Go to Feast, as others do.
Tarts and Gustards, Creams and Cakes,
Are the Junketts still at Wakes:
Unto which the Tribes resort,
Where the businesse is the sport:
Morris-dancers thou shalt see,
Marian too in Pagentrie:
And a Mimick 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.
Neer the dying of the day,
There will be a Cudgell-Play,
Where a Coxcomb will be broke,
Ere a good word can be spoke:
But the anger ends all here,
Drencht in Ale, or drown'd in Beere.
Happy Rusticks, best content
With the cheapest Merriment:
And possesse no other feare,
Then to want the Wake next Yeare.

MLA

Herrick, Robert. “The Wake.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/herrick/770/.

Chicago

Herrick, Robert. “The Wake.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/herrick/770/.

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