124. To God in Time of Plundering
Rapine has yet took nought from me;But if it please my God I beBrought at the last to th' utmost bit,God make me thankful still for it.I have been grateful for my store:Let me say grace when there's no more.
Words in this poem
- thankful a.
- Obtaining or deserving thanks; thankworthy. [AS. Þancfull.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
124. To God in Time of Plundering 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, 124. To God in Time of Plundering, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/124-to-god-in-time-of-plundering.html, id L06135.
Form and metre
124. To God in Time of Plundering is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables.
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 meA · beA · bitB · itB · storeC · moreC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rapine has yet took nought from me; | 8 | /˘······ |
| But if it please my God I be | 8 | ········ |
| Brought at the last to th' utmost bit, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| God make me thankful still for it. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I have been grateful for my store: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Let me say grace when there's no more. | 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.