102. The Star-Song: A Carol to the King Sung at Whitehall
Tell us, thou clear and heavenly tongue,Where is the Babe but lately sprung?Lies he the lily-banks among?
Or say, if this new Birth of oursSleeps, laid within some ark of flowers,Spangled with dew-light; thou canst clearAll doubts, and manifest the where.
Declare to us, bright star, if we shall seekHim in the morning's blushing cheek,Or search the beds of spices through,To find him out.
Star. No, this ye need not do;But only come and see Him restA Princely Babe in's mother's breast.
Chor. He's seen, He's seen! why then a round,Let's kiss the sweet and holy ground;And all rejoice that we have foundA King before conception crown'd.
Come then, come then, and let us bringUnto our pretty Twelfth-tide King,Each one his several offering;
Chor. And when night comes, we'll give Him wassailing;And that His treble honours may be seen,We'll choose Him King, and make His mother Queen.
Words in this poem
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
102. The Star-Song: A Carol to the King Sung at Whitehall is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #22421; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Herrick, 102. The Star-Song: A Carol to the King Sung at Whitehall, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/102-the-star-song-a-carol-to-the-king-sung-at-whitehall.html, id L06113.
Form and metre
102. The Star-Song: A Carol to the King Sung at Whitehall is 24 lines in 7 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AAA tongueA · sprungA · amongA
- 2 AABB oursA · flowersA · clearB · whereB
- 3 AA-- seekA · cheekA · through · out
- 4 -AA do · restA · breastA
- 5 AAAA roundA · groundA · foundA · crown'dA
- 6 AAA bringA · kingA · offeringA
- 7 -AA wassailing · seenA · queenA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tell us, thou clear and heavenly tongue, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Where is the Babe but lately sprung? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Lies he the lily-banks among? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or say, if this new Birth of ours | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Sleeps, laid within some ark of flowers, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Spangled with dew-light; thou canst clear | 9 | /˘˘······ |
| All doubts, and manifest the where. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Declare to us, bright star, if we shall seek | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Him in the morning's blushing cheek, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or search the beds of spices through, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To find him out. | 4 | ···· |
| Star. No, this ye need not do; | 7 | ······· |
| But only come and see Him rest | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A Princely Babe in's mother's breast. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Chor. He's seen, He's seen! why then a round, | 9 | ········· |
| Let's kiss the sweet and holy ground; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And all rejoice that we have found | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| A King before conception crown'd. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Come then, come then, and let us bring | 8 | ········ |
| Unto our pretty Twelfth-tide King, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Each one his several offering; | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Chor. And when night comes, we'll give Him wassailing; | 11 | ··········· |
| And that His treble honours may be seen, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| We'll choose Him King, and make His mother Queen. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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.