After Touchstone and Corin exit (at line 150), Rosalind and Celia discuss the poetry that they have been finding on the trees. Rosalind exclaims that the meter of the poems is poorly constructed: “the feet were lame” (155). The word feet refers both to the feet of a person and the feet of poetry (like an iamb or trochee). Rosalind personifies the poetry as an individual who cannot leave himself because he is crippled. She means that the words (or verses) do not smoothly flow with the meter of the poems.
Celia then raises the more important question regarding the use of Rosalind’s name in each of the poems.
Rosalind admits that she is more than a little surprised at that and exclaims, “I was never so berhymed since Pythagoras’ time that I was an Irish rat” (162-63). English poets had little respect or admiration for Irish poets, and a common expression in England was that Irish poets could rhyme a rat to death. In other words, even a rat would die if it had to listen to Irish poetry. In her expressive and imaginative statement, Rosalind declares that she was an Irish rat in a past life who died listening to Irish poetry (Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher during the 6th century B.C. who believed in reincarnation). Rosalind is implying that she is now suffering in a similar way when she reads the poetry hanging on the trees.
Celia knows that Orlando is the writer of the poems, and she teases Rosalind by holding back this