1100. To His Brother, Nicholas Herrick
What others have with cheapness seen and easeIn varnish'd maps, by th' help of compasses,Or read in volumes and those books with allTheir large narrations incanonical,Thou hast beheld those seas and countries far,And tell'st to us what once they were, and are.So that with bold truth thou can'st now relateThis kingdom's fortune, and that empire's fate:Can'st talk to us of Sharon, where a springOf roses have an endless flourishing;Of Sion, Sinai, Nebo, and with themMake known to us the new Jerusalem;The Mount of Olives, Calvary, and whereIs, and hast seen, thy Saviour's sepulchre.So that the man that will but lay his earsAs inapostate to the thing he hears,Shall by his hearing quickly come to seeThe truth of travels less in books than thee.
Words in this poem
- cheapness n.
- Lowness in price, considering the usual price, or real value.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- calvary n.
- The place where Christ was crucified, on a small hill outside of Jerusalem. Luke xxiii. 33. [L. calvaria a bare skull, fr. calva the scalp without hair. fr. calvus bald; cf. F. calvaire.]
- sepulchre n.
- The place in which the dead body of a human being is interred, or a place set apart for that purpose; a grave; a tomb. [OE. sepulcre, OF. sepulcre, F. sépulcre, fr. L. sepulcrum, sepulchrum, fr. sepelire to bury.]
- 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
1100. To His Brother, Nicholas Herrick 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, 1100. To His Brother, Nicholas Herrick, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/1100-to-his-brother-nicholas-herrick.html, id L05991.
Form and metre
1100. To His Brother, Nicholas Herrick is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 78% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% 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 AA--BBCCDDEE--FFGG easeA · compassesA · all · incanonical · farB · areB · relateC · fateC · springD · flourishingD · themE · jerusalemE · where · sepulchre · earsF · hearsF · seeG · theeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What others have with cheapness seen and ease | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| In varnish'd maps, by th' help of compasses, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Or read in volumes and those books with all | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Their large narrations incanonical, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Thou hast beheld those seas and countries far, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And tell'st to us what once they were, and are. | 10 | ·········· |
| So that with bold truth thou can'st now relate | 10 | ········˘/ |
| This kingdom's fortune, and that empire's fate: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Can'st talk to us of Sharon, where a spring | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of roses have an endless flourishing; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Of Sion, Sinai, Nebo, and with them | 9 | ··/······ |
| Make known to us the new Jerusalem; | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| The Mount of Olives, Calvary, and where | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Is, and hast seen, thy Saviour's sepulchre. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| So that the man that will but lay his ears | 10 | ·········· |
| As inapostate to the thing he hears, | 10 | ·········· |
| Shall by his hearing quickly come to see | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The truth of travels less in books than thee. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Large: exaggerated · Incanonical: untrustworthy
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