Living
The Wake.
From Hesperides (1648)
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.
Cite this poem
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/.
Read this poem with the Codex →