Hesperides
Herrick's lyrics: "To the Virgins", "Delight in Disorder".
What this poem is
Hesperides () (complete title, Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick Esq.) is a book of poetry published in 1648 by English Cavalier poet Robert Herrick. This collection of 1200 lyrical poems, his magnum opus, was published under his direction, and established his reputation. It is replete with carpe diem sentiments. The title refers to the Hesperides, nymphs of the evening in Greek mythology.
Hesperides includes "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", which features the famous lines:
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying;
Adapted from the Wikipedia article “Hesperides (poetry collection)” (revision 1332441735), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Laurel's own notes and measurements are not from Wikipedia.
Measured across the book
Across its 12,633 lines, 96% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 96% to 96%). Alliteration runs at 1.11 times what shuffling the words would give (0.29 observed against 0.26 expected). 24% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
About this text
Public domain. Text from The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #22421. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.