23. The Weeping Cherry
I saw a cherry weep, and why?Why wept it? but for shameBecause my Julia's lip was by,And did out-red the same.But, pretty fondling, let not fallA tear at all for that:Which rubies, corals, scarlets, allFor tincture wonder at.
About this text
23. The Weeping Cherry 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, 23. The Weeping Cherry, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/23-the-weeping-cherry.html, id L05086.
Form and metre
23. The Weeping Cherry is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABABCDCD whyA · shameB · byA · sameB · fallC · thatD · allC · atD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I saw a cherry weep, and why? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Why wept it? but for shame | 6 | ······ |
| Because my Julia's lip was by, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And did out-red the same. | 6 | ······ |
| But, pretty fondling, let not fall | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘··· |
| A tear at all for that: | 6 | ······ |
| Which rubies, corals, scarlets, all | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| For tincture wonder at. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
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.