192. On Gilly-Flowers Begotten
What was't that fell but nowFrom that warm kiss of ours?Look, look! by love I vowThey were two gilly-flowers.
Let's kiss and kiss again,For if so be our closesMake gilly-flowers, thenI'm sure they'll fashion roses.
About this text
192. On Gilly-Flowers Begotten 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, 192. On Gilly-Flowers Begotten, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/192-on-gilly-flowers-begotten.html, id L05239.
Form and metre
192. On Gilly-Flowers Begotten is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABAB nowA · oursB · vowA · flowersB
- 2 ABAB againA · closesB · thenA · rosesB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What was't that fell but now | 6 | ······ |
| From that warm kiss of ours? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Look, look! by love I vow | 6 | ······ |
| They were two gilly-flowers. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Let's kiss and kiss again, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| For if so be our closes | 7 | ····//˘ |
| Make gilly-flowers, then | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| I'm sure they'll fashion roses. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
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.