1089. To M. Laurence Swetnaham
Read thou my lines, my Swetnaham; if there beA fault, 'tis hid if it be voic'd by thee.Thy mouth will make the sourest numbers please:How will it drop pure honey speaking these!
About this text
1089. To M. Laurence Swetnaham 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, 1089. To M. Laurence Swetnaham, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/1089-to-m-laurence-swetnaham.html, id L05981.
Form and metre
1089. To M. Laurence Swetnaham is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 10.2 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABB beA · theeA · pleaseB · theseB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Read thou my lines, my Swetnaham; if there be | 11 | ··········· |
| A fault, 'tis hid if it be voic'd by thee. | 10 | ·········· |
| Thy mouth will make the sourest numbers please: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| How will it drop pure honey speaking these! | 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.