232. The Changes to Corinna
Be not proud, but now inclineYour soft ear to discipline.You have changes in your life--Sometimes peace and sometimes strife;You have ebbs of face and flows,As your health or comes or goes;You have hopes, and doubts, and fearsNumberless, as are your hairs.You have pulses that do beatHigh, and passions less of heat.You are young, but must be old,And, to these, ye must be toldTime ere long will come and ploughLoathed furrows in your brow:And the dimness of your eyeWill no other thing implyBut you must dieAs well as I.
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- numberless a.
- Innumerable; countless.
- imply v. t.
- To infold or involve; to wrap up. [From the same source as employ. See Employ, Ply, and cf. Implicate, Apply.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
232. The Changes to Corinna 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, 232. The Changes to Corinna, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/232-the-changes-to-corinna.html, id L05273.
Form and metre
232. The Changes to Corinna is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 89% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% 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 AABBCC--DDEEFFGGGG inclineA · disciplineA · lifeB · strifeB · flowsC · goesC · fears · hairs · beatD · heatD · oldE · toldE · ploughF · browF · eyeG · implyG · dieG · iG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Be not proud, but now incline | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Your soft ear to discipline. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| You have changes in your life-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sometimes peace and sometimes strife; | 7 | ˘/··˘/· |
| You have ebbs of face and flows, | 7 | ······· |
| As your health or comes or goes; | 7 | ······· |
| You have hopes, and doubts, and fears | 7 | ······· |
| Numberless, as are your hairs. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| You have pulses that do beat | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| High, and passions less of heat. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| You are young, but must be old, | 7 | ······· |
| And, to these, ye must be told | 7 | ······· |
| Time ere long will come and plough | 7 | ······· |
| Loathed furrows in your brow: | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| And the dimness of your eye | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Will no other thing imply | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| But you must die | 4 | ···· |
| As well as I. | 4 | ···· |
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.