Folks,
My thanks to all who replied to my request for the name of the poet who
penned the lines about a shepherd carving his dial.
It was William Shakespeare's Henry VI, and Henry was musing on the fate of
princes and how it would be far better to be a shepherd. That's a very romantic
view
Hi folks,
In the course of some literature research on shepherding in colonial
Australia, I came across the following poem with a distinct dialling theme.
Methinks it were
a happy life
To be no better
than a humble swain;
To sit upon a hill,
as I do now,
To carve out dials
quaintly,
Message text written by John Pickard
Does any one know name of the poet???
Shakespeare? Henry VI pt3, Act II Scene 5
(I think!)
Patricik
-
(I think!)
Correct - Lines 25 to 40
Mike Shaw
53.37 North
03.02 West
www.wiz.to/sundials
-
, March 07, 2005 7:07 PM
Subject: Author of poem
Message text written by John Pickard
Does any one know name of the poet???
Shakespeare? Henry VI pt3, Act II Scene 5
(I think!)
Patricik
-
-
Dear John
Yes, both Patrick Powers and Mike Shaw are spot on
in identifying your author but, like most renderings,
what you wrote is not what Shakespeare would have
recognised. The best (pure ASCII) rendering I can
do of the key lines as they appear in the First Folio
is:
To carue out
