1088. On Himself
A wearied pilgrim, I have wandered hereTwice five-and-twenty, bate me but one year;Long I have lasted in this world, 'tis true,But yet those years that I have lived, but few.Who by his grey hairs doth his lusters tell,Lives not those years, but he that lives them well.One man has reach'd his sixty years, but heOf all those threescore, has not liv'd half three.He lives, who lives to virtue; men who castTheir ends for pleasure, do not live, but last.
Words in this poem
- bate n.
- Strife; contention. [Prob. abbrev. from debate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
1088. On Himself 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, 1088. On Himself, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/1088-on-himself.html, id L05980.
Form and metre
1088. On Himself is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, 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 10.0 syllables. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEE hereA · yearA · trueB · fewB · tellC · wellC · heD · threeD · castE · lastE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A wearied pilgrim, I have wandered here | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Twice five-and-twenty, bate me but one year; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Long I have lasted in this world, 'tis true, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But yet those years that I have lived, but few. | 10 | ·········· |
| Who by his grey hairs doth his lusters tell, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Lives not those years, but he that lives them well. | 10 | ·········· |
| One man has reach'd his sixty years, but he | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of all those threescore, has not liv'd half three. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He lives, who lives to virtue; men who cast | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Their ends for pleasure, do not live, but last. | 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.