243. Draw-Gloves
At draw-gloves we'll play,And prithee let's layA wager, and let it be this:Who first to the sumOf twenty shall come,Shall have for his winning a kiss.
Words in this poem
- prithee interj.
- A corruption of pray thee; as, I prithee; generally used without I.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
243. Draw-Gloves 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, 243. Draw-Gloves, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/243-draw-gloves.html, id L05280.
Form and metre
243. Draw-Gloves is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes AABCCB. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables.
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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 AABCCB playA · layA · thisB · sumC · comeC · kissB
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At draw-gloves we'll play, | 5 | ····· |
| And prithee let's lay | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| A wager, and let it be this: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who first to the sum | 5 | ····· |
| Of twenty shall come, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Shall have for his winning a kiss. | 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.