119. Leander's Obsequies
When as Leander young was drown'dNo heart by Love receiv'd a wound,But on a rock himself sat by,There weeping sup'rabundantly.Sighs numberless he cast about,And, all his tapers thus put out,His head upon his hand he laid,And sobbing deeply, thus he said:"Ah, cruel sea," and, looking on't,Wept as he'd drown the Hellespont.And sure his tongue had more express'dBut that his tears forbade the rest.
Words in this poem
- numberless a.
- Innumerable; countless.
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
- hellespont n.
- A narrow strait between Europe and Asia, now called the Daradanelles. It connects the Ægean Sea and the sea of Marmora.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
119. Leander's Obsequies 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, 119. Leander's Obsequies, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/119-leander-s-obsequies.html, id L05177.
Form and metre
119. Leander's Obsequies is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 AA--BB--CCDD drown'dA · woundA · by · sup'rabundantly · aboutB · outB · laid · said · on'tC · hellespontC · express'dD · restD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When as Leander young was drown'd | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| No heart by Love receiv'd a wound, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| But on a rock himself sat by, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| There weeping sup'rabundantly. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Sighs numberless he cast about, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| And, all his tapers thus put out, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| His head upon his hand he laid, | 8 | ········ |
| And sobbing deeply, thus he said: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| "Ah, cruel sea," and, looking on't, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Wept as he'd drown the Hellespont. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And sure his tongue had more express'd | 8 | ······˘/ |
| But that his tears forbade the rest. | 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.