217. The Bleeding Hand; Or, the Sprig of Eglantine Given to a Maid
From this bleeding hand of mineTake this sprig of eglantine,Which, though sweet unto your smell,Yet the fretful briar will tell,He who plucks the sweets shall proveMany thorns to be in love.
Words in this poem
- briar n.
- A plant with a slender woody stem bearing stout prickles; especially, species of Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax. [OE. brere, brer, AS. brer, brær; cf. Ir. briar prickle, thorn, brier, pin, Gael. preas bush, brier, W. prys, prysg.]
- 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
217. The Bleeding Hand; Or, the Sprig of Eglantine Given to a Maid 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, 217. The Bleeding Hand; Or, the Sprig of Eglantine Given to a Maid, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/217-the-bleeding-hand-or-the-sprig-of-eglantine-given-to-a-m.html, id L05261.
Form and metre
217. The Bleeding Hand; Or, the Sprig of Eglantine Given to a Maid is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCC mineA · eglantineA · smellB · tellB · proveC · loveC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| From this bleeding hand of mine | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Take this sprig of eglantine, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Which, though sweet unto your smell, | 7 | ······· |
| Yet the fretful briar will tell, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| He who plucks the sweets shall prove | 7 | ······· |
| Many thorns to be in love. | 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.