225. The Plaudite, or End of Life
If, after rude and boisterous seas,My wearied pinnace here finds ease;If so it be I've gained the shoreWith safety of a faithful oar;If, having run my barque on ground,Ye see the aged vessel crown'd:What's to be done, but on the sandsYe dance and sing and now clap hands?The first act's doubtful, but we sayIt is the last commends the play.
Words in this poem
- boisterous a.
- Rough or rude; unbending; unyielding; strong; powerful. [OE. boistous; of uncertain origin; cf. W. bwyst wild, savage, wildness, ferocity, bwystus ferocious.]
- barque n.
- Formerly, any small sailing vessel, as a pinnace, fishing smack, etc.; also, a rowing boat; a barge. Now applied poetically to a sailing vessel or boat of any kind. [F. barque, fr. Sp. or It. barca, fr. LL. barca for barica. See Barge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
225. The Plaudite, or End of Life 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, 225. The Plaudite, or End of Life, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/225-the-plaudite-or-end-of-life.html, id L05266.
Form and metre
225. The Plaudite, or End of Life is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 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 AABBCCDDEE seasA · easeA · shoreB · oarB · groundC · crown'dC · sandsD · handsD · sayE · playE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If, after rude and boisterous seas, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| My wearied pinnace here finds ease; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| If so it be I've gained the shore | 9 | ······˘·· |
| With safety of a faithful oar; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| If, having run my barque on ground, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ye see the aged vessel crown'd: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| What's to be done, but on the sands | 8 | ········ |
| Ye dance and sing and now clap hands? | 8 | ········ |
| The first act's doubtful, but we say | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| It is the last commends the play. | 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.