205. To Violets
Welcome, maids-of-honour!You do bringIn the spring,And wait upon her.
She has virgins many,Fresh and fair;Yet you areMore sweet than any.
You're the maiden posies,And so grac'dTo be plac'd'Fore damask roses.
Yet, though thus respected,By-and-byYe do lie,Poor girls, neglected.
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
205. To Violets 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, 205. To Violets, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/205-to-violets.html, id L05250.
Form and metre
205. To Violets is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.2 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 -AA- honour · bringA · springA · her
- 2 A--A manyA · fair · are · anyA
- 3 -AA- posies · grac'dA · plac'dA · roses
- 4 ABBA respectedA · byB · lieB · neglectedA
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome, maids-of-honour! | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| You do bring | 3 | ··· |
| In the spring, | 3 | ··· |
| And wait upon her. | 5 | ····· |
| She has virgins many, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Fresh and fair; | 3 | ··· |
| Yet you are | 3 | ··· |
| More sweet than any. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| You're the maiden posies, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And so grac'd | 3 | ··· |
| To be plac'd | 3 | ··· |
| 'Fore damask roses. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Yet, though thus respected, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| By-and-by | 3 | ··· |
| Ye do lie, | 3 | ··· |
| Poor girls, neglected. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
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.