183. Upon Prig
Prig now drinks water, who before drank beer;What's now the cause? we know the case is clear;Look in Prig's purse, the chev'ril there tells youPrig money wants, either to buy or brew.
Words in this poem
- prig v. i.
- To haggle about the price of a commodity; to bargain hard. [A modification of prick.]
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- brew v. t.
- To boil or seethe; to cook. [OE. brewen, AS. breówan; akin to D. brouwen, OHG. priuwan, MHG. briuwen, br, G. brauen, Icel. brugga, Sw. brygga, Dan. brygge, and perh. to L. defrutum must boi]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
183. Upon Prig 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, 183. Upon Prig, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/183-upon-prig.html, id L06305.
Form and metre
183. Upon Prig is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 AABB beerA · clearA · youB · brewB
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.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Prig now drinks water, who before drank beer; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What's now the cause? we know the case is clear; | 10 | ·········· |
| Look in Prig's purse, the chev'ril there tells you | 10 | ·········· |
| Prig money wants, either to buy or brew. | 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.