157. Montes Scripturarum: The Mounts of the Scriptures

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) · 1648

iambic tetrameter · rhyming couplets · 4 lines · from Hesperides

The mountains of the Scriptures are, some say,Moses, and Jesus, called Joshua:The prophets, mountains of the Old are meant,Th' apostles, mounts of the New Testament.

About this text

157. Montes Scripturarum: The Mounts of the Scriptures 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, 157. Montes Scripturarum: The Mounts of the Scriptures, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/157-montes-scripturarum-the-mounts-of-the-scriptures.html, id L06168.

Form and metre

157. Montes Scripturarum: The Mounts of the Scriptures is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.

See other poems in rhyming couplets.

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. 1 --AA say · joshua · meantA · testamentA
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. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
The mountains of the Scriptures are, some say,10·/˘··/˘···
Moses, and Jesus, called Joshua:10/˘·/˘·˘/˘˘
The prophets, mountains of the Old are meant,10·/˘/˘·····
Th' apostles, mounts of the New Testament.10˘/˘····/˘˘

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