152. To Electra
I'll come to thee in all those shapesAs Jove did when he made his rapes,Only I'll not appear to theeAs he did once to Semele.Thunder and lightning I'll lay by,To talk with thee familiarly.Which done, then quickly we'll undressTo one and th' other's nakedness,And, ravish'd, plunge into the bed,Bodies and souls commingled,And kissing, so as none may hear,We'll weary all the fables there.
Words in this poem
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- semele n.
- A daughter of Cadmus, and by Zeus mother of Bacchus.
- nakedness n.
- The condition of being naked.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
152. To Electra 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, 152. To Electra, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/152-to-electra.html, id L05205.
Form and metre
152. To Electra 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 88%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 AABBB-CC--DD shapesA · rapesA · theeB · semeleB · byB · familiarly · undressC · nakednessC · bed · commingled · hearD · thereD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I'll come to thee in all those shapes | 8 | ········ |
| As Jove did when he made his rapes, | 8 | ········ |
| Only I'll not appear to thee | 8 | /˘··˘/·· |
| As he did once to Semele. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thunder and lightning I'll lay by, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| To talk with thee familiarly. | 8 | ····/˘˘˘ |
| Which done, then quickly we'll undress | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| To one and th' other's nakedness, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And, ravish'd, plunge into the bed, | 8 | ········ |
| Bodies and souls commingled, | 8 | /˘··˘/˘˘ |
| And kissing, so as none may hear, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| We'll weary all the fables there. | 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.