133. The Eye
Make me a heaven, and make me thereMany a less and greater sphere:Make me the straight and oblique lines,The motions, lations and the signs.Make me a chariot and a sun,And let them through a zodiac run;Next place me zones and tropics there,With all the seasons of the year.Make me a sunset and a night,And then present the morning's lightCloth'd in her chamlets of delight.To these make clouds to pour down rain,With weather foul, then fair again.And when, wise artist, that thou hastWith all that can be this heaven grac't,Ah! what is then this curious skyBut only my Corinna's eye?
Words in this poem
- artist n.
- One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. [F. artiste, LL. artista, fr. L. ars. See Art, n., and cf. Artiste.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
133. The Eye 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, 133. The Eye, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/133-the-eye.html, id L05188.
Form and metre
133. The Eye is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 24% 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 ABCCDDABEEEFF--GG thereA · sphereB · linesC · signsC · sunD · runD · thereA · yearB · nightE · lightE · delightE · rainF · againF · hast · grac't · skyG · eyeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Make me a heaven, and make me there | 8 | ···/···· |
| Many a less and greater sphere: | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Make me the straight and oblique lines, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| The motions, lations and the signs. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Make me a chariot and a sun, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And let them through a zodiac run; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Next place me zones and tropics there, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With all the seasons of the year. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Make me a sunset and a night, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And then present the morning's light | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Cloth'd in her chamlets of delight. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To these make clouds to pour down rain, | 8 | ········ |
| With weather foul, then fair again. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And when, wise artist, that thou hast | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With all that can be this heaven grac't, | 8 | ······/· |
| Ah! what is then this curious sky | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But only my Corinna's eye? | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Lations: astral attractions · Chamlets: _i.e._, camlets, stuffs made from camels' hair
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