116. An Epitaph upon a Sober Matron
With blameless carriage, I lived hereTo the almost seven and fortieth year.Stout sons I had, and those twice threeOne only daughter lent to me:The which was made a happy brideBut thrice three moons before she died.My modest wedlock, that was knownContented with the bed of one.
Words in this poem
- fortieth a.
- Following the thirty-ninth, or preceded by thirty-nine units, things, or parts. [AS. feówertigo. See Forty.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
116. An Epitaph upon a Sober Matron 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, 116. An Epitaph upon a Sober Matron, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/116-an-epitaph-upon-a-sober-matron.html, id L05174.
Form and metre
116. An Epitaph upon a Sober Matron is 8 lines in a single stanza. 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 85%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 50% 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 AABBCC-- hereA · yearA · threeB · meB · brideC · diedC · known · one
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With blameless carriage, I lived here | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To the almost seven and fortieth year. | 9 | ··/·/·/˘· |
| Stout sons I had, and those twice three | 8 | ········ |
| One only daughter lent to me: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The which was made a happy bride | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But thrice three moons before she died. | 8 | ········ |
| My modest wedlock, that was known | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Contented with the bed of one. | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
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.