235. Upon Himself
Mop-eyed I am, as some have said,Because I've lived so long a maid:But grant that I should wedded be,Should I a jot the better see?No, I should think that marriage might,Rather than mend, put out the light.
Words in this poem
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
235. Upon Himself 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, 235. Upon Himself, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/235-upon-himself.html, id L05275.
Form and metre
235. Upon Himself is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables.
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 --AABB said · maid · beA · seeA · mightB · lightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mop-eyed I am, as some have said, | 8 | ········ |
| Because I've lived so long a maid: | 9 | ····˘···· |
| But grant that I should wedded be, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Should I a jot the better see? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| No, I should think that marriage might, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Rather than mend, put out the light. | 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.