227. Hell Fire
One only fire has hell; but yet it shallNot after one sort there excruciate all:But look, how each transgressor onward wentBoldly in sin, shall feel more punishment.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- excruciate a.
- Excruciated; tortured. [L. excruciatus, p. p. of excruciare to excruciate; ex out + cruciare to put to death on a cross, to torment. See Cruciate, Cross.]
- transgressor n.
- One who transgresses; one who breaks a law, or violates a command; one who violates any known rule or principle of rectitude; a sinner. [L.: cf. F. transgresseur.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- boldly adv.
- In a bold manner. [AS. bealdlice.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
227. Hell Fire 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, 227. Hell Fire, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/227-hell-fire.html, id L06238.
Form and metre
227. Hell Fire is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 shall · all · wentA · punishmentA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| One only fire has hell; but yet it shall | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| Not after one sort there excruciate all: | 11 | ······˘/˘˘· |
| But look, how each transgressor onward went | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Boldly in sin, shall feel more punishment. | 10 | /˘·····/˘˘ |
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.