117. To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter
Let there be patrons, patrons like to thee,Brave Porter! poets ne'er will wanting be:Fabius and Cotta, Lentulus, all liveIn thee, thou man of men! who here do'st giveNot only subject-matter for our wit,But likewise oil of maintenance to it:For which, before thy threshold, we'll lay downOur thyrse for sceptre, and our bays for crown.For, to say truth, all garlands are thy due:The laurel, myrtle, oak, and ivy too.
Words in this poem
- cotta n.
- A surplice, in England and America usually one shorter and less full than the ordinary surplice and with short sleeves, or sometimes none.
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
117. To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter 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, 117. To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/117-to-the-patron-of-poets-m-end-porter.html, id L05175.
Form and metre
117. To the Patron of Poets, M. End. Porter 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 84%). 91% 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 theeA · beA · liveB · giveB · witC · itC · downD · crownD · dueE · tooE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Let there be patrons, patrons like to thee, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Brave Porter! poets ne'er will wanting be: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Fabius and Cotta, Lentulus, all live | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In thee, thou man of men! who here do'st give | 10 | ·········· |
| Not only subject-matter for our wit, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·/· |
| But likewise oil of maintenance to it: | 10 | ·/···/˘˘·· |
| For which, before thy threshold, we'll lay down | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Our thyrse for sceptre, and our bays for crown. | 10 | /··/˘·/··· |
| For, to say truth, all garlands are thy due: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The laurel, myrtle, oak, and ivy too. | 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.