130. Upon Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler, Under the Name of Amarillis
Sweet Amarillis by a spring'sSoft and soul-melting murmuringsSlept, and thus sleeping, thither flewA robin-redbreast, who, at view,Not seeing her at all to stir,Brought leaves and moss to cover her;But while he perking there did pryAbout the arch of either eye,The lid began to let out day,At which poor robin flew away,And seeing her not dead, but all disleav'd,He chirp'd for joy to see himself deceiv'd.
About this text
130. Upon Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler, Under the Name of Amarillis 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, 130. Upon Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler, Under the Name of Amarillis, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/130-upon-mrs-elizabeth-wheeler-under-the-name-of-amarillis.html, id L05186.
Form and metre
130. Upon Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler, Under the Name of Amarillis is 12 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 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 AABBCCDDEEFF spring'sA · murmuringsA · flewB · viewB · stirC · herC · pryD · eyeD · dayE · awayE · disleav'dF · deceiv'dF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet Amarillis by a spring's | 8 | ········ |
| Soft and soul-melting murmurings | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Slept, and thus sleeping, thither flew | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| A robin-redbreast, who, at view, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Not seeing her at all to stir, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Brought leaves and moss to cover her; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But while he perking there did pry | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| About the arch of either eye, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The lid began to let out day, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| At which poor robin flew away, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And seeing her not dead, but all disleav'd, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| He chirp'd for joy to see himself deceiv'd. | 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.