The Grasshopper

Richard LovelaceSeventeenth-century EnglishPoem

O THOU that swing’st upon the waving hair
Of some well-fillèd oaten beard,
Drunk every night with a delicious tear
Dropt thee from heaven, where thou wert rear’d!

The joys of earth and air are thine entire,
That with thy feet and wings dost hop and fly;
And when thy poppy works, thou dost retire
To thy carved acorn-bed to lie.

Up with the day, the Sun thou welcom’st then,
Sport’st in the gilt plaits of his beams,
And all these merry days mak’st merry men,
Thyself, and melancholy streams.

Cultural reading

Reading the poem

The poem addresses a grasshopper swinging on an oat-beard, drunk nightly on dew, owner of earth and air by turns, who retires to a carved acorn-bed and wakes to greet the sun and make men merry.

Language notes

Text and edition

Only three stanzas are supplied, and the address to the grasshopper is still open at the last supplied line ("Thyself, and melancholy streams"); the selection does not establish the complete ode, so this record is treated conservatively as an anthology extract.