Epi: Hen: Princ: Hugo Holland
Loe now hee shineth yonderA fixed starr in heaven,Whose motion is vnderNone of the planetts seaven;And if the soñ should tenderThe moone his loue and marry,They never could engenderSo fayre a starr as Harry.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- starr n.
- One of the innumerable luminous bodies seen in the heavens; any heavenly body other than the sun, moon, comets, and nebulæ. [OE. sterre, AS. steorra; akin to OFries. stera, OS. sterro, D. ster, OHG. sterno, sterro, G. stern, Icel. stjarna, Sw. stjerna, Dan. stierne, Goth. staírno, Arm]
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epi: Hen: Princ: Hugo Holland is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, Epi: Hen: Princ: Hugo Holland, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/epi-hen-princ-hugo-holland.html, id L05056.
Form and metre
Epi: Hen: Princ: Hugo Holland is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-ABCBC yonder · heavenA · vnder · seavenA · tenderB · marryC · engenderB · harryC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Loe now hee shineth yonder | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| A fixed starr in heaven, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Whose motion is vnder | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| None of the planetts seaven; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| And if the soñ should tender | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The moone his loue and marry, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| They never could engender | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| So fayre a starr as Harry. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.