2. His Prayer for Absolution
For those my unbaptised rhymes,Writ in my wild unhallowed times;For every sentence, clause, and word,That's not inlaid with Thee, my Lord,Forgive me, God, and blot each lineOut of my book that is not Thine.But if, 'mongst all, thou find'st here oneWorthy Thy benediction;That one of all the rest shall beThe glory of my work and me.
Words in this poem
- unhallowed a.
- Not consecrated; hence, profane; unholy; impious; wicked. [Pref. un- not + hallowed.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
2. His Prayer for Absolution 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, 2. His Prayer for Absolution, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/2-his-prayer-for-absolution.html, id L06013.
Form and metre
2. His Prayer for Absolution is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 AA--BB-BCC rhymesA · timesA · word · lord · lineB · thineB · one · benedictionB · beC · meC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| For those my unbaptised rhymes, | 7 | ······· |
| Writ in my wild unhallowed times; | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| For every sentence, clause, and word, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| That's not inlaid with Thee, my Lord, | 8 | ··/····· |
| Forgive me, God, and blot each line | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Out of my book that is not Thine. | 8 | ········ |
| But if, 'mongst all, thou find'st here one | 8 | ········ |
| Worthy Thy benediction; | 7 | /˘··˘/˘ |
| That one of all the rest shall be | 8 | ········ |
| The glory of my work and me. | 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.