122. The Goodness of His God
When winds and seas do rageAnd threaten to undo me,Thou dost, their wrath assuageIf I but call unto Thee.
A mighty storm last nightDid seek my soul to swallow,But by the peep of lightA gentle calm did follow.
What need I then despair,Though ills stand round about me;Since mischiefs neither dareTo bark or bite without Thee?
About this text
122. The Goodness of His God 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, 122. The Goodness of His God, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/122-the-goodness-of-his-god.html, id L06133.
Form and metre
122. The Goodness of His God is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABAB rageA · meB · assuageA · theeB
- 2 ABAB nightA · swallowB · lightA · followB
- 3 ABAB despairA · meB · dareA · theeB
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 winds and seas do rage | 6 | ······ |
| And threaten to undo me, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| Thou dost, their wrath assuage | 6 | ····˘/ |
| If I but call unto Thee. | 7 | ······· |
| A mighty storm last night | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Did seek my soul to swallow, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| But by the peep of light | 6 | ······ |
| A gentle calm did follow. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| What need I then despair, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Though ills stand round about me; | 7 | ······· |
| Since mischiefs neither dare | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| To bark or bite without Thee? | 7 | ······· |
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.