203. Lips Tongueless
For my part, I never careFor those lips that tongue-tied are:Tell-tales I would have them beOf my mistress and of me.Let them prattle how that ISometimes freeze and sometimes fry:Let them tell how she doth moveFore or backward in her love:Let them speak by gentle tones,One and th' other's passions:How we watch, and seldom sleep;How by willows we do weep;How by stealth we meet, and thenKiss, and sigh, so part again.This the lips we will permitFor to tell, not publish it.
Words in this poem
- stealth n.
- The act of stealing; theft. [OE. staple. See Steal, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
203. Lips Tongueless 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, 203. Lips Tongueless, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/203-lips-tongueless.html, id L05248.
Form and metre
203. Lips Tongueless is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 --AABBCCDDEEFFGG care · are · beA · meA · iB · fryB · moveC · loveC · tonesD · passionsD · sleepE · weepE · thenF · againF · permitG · itG
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 my part, I never care | 7 | ····/˘· |
| For those lips that tongue-tied are: | 7 | ······· |
| Tell-tales I would have them be | 7 | ······· |
| Of my mistress and of me. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Let them prattle how that I | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sometimes freeze and sometimes fry: | 7 | ˘/··˘/· |
| Let them tell how she doth move | 7 | ······· |
| Fore or backward in her love: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Let them speak by gentle tones, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| One and th' other's passions: | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| How we watch, and seldom sleep; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| How by willows we do weep; | 7 | ··/···· |
| How by stealth we meet, and then | 7 | ······· |
| Kiss, and sigh, so part again. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| This the lips we will permit | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| For to tell, not publish it. | 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.