244. To Music, to Becalm a Sweet-Sick Youth
Charms, that call down the moon from out her sphere,On this sick youth work your enchantments here:Bind up his senses with your numbers soAs to entrance his pain, or cure his woe.Fall gently, gently, and a while him keepLost in the civil wilderness of sleep:That done, then let him, dispossessed of pain,Like to a slumb'ring bride, awake again.
Never my book's perfection did appearTill I had got the name of Villars here:Now 'tis so full that when therein I lookI see a cloud of glory fills my book.Here stand it still to dignify our Muse,Your sober handmaid, who doth wisely chooseYour name to be a laureate wreath to herWho doth both love and fear you, honoured sir.
Words in this poem
- dignify v. t.
- To invest with dignity or honor; to make illustrious; to give distinction to; to exalt in rank; to honor. [OF. dignifier, fr. LL. d; L. dignus worthy + ficare (in comp.), facere to make. See Deign, and Fact.]
- handmaid n.
- A maid that waits at hand; a female servant or attendant.
- laureate a.
- Crowned, or decked, with laurel. [L. laureatus, fr. laurea laurel tree, fr. laureus of laurel, fr. laurus laurel: cf. F. lauréat. Cf. Laurel.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
244. To Music, to Becalm a Sweet-Sick Youth 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, 244. To Music, to Becalm a Sweet-Sick Youth, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/244-to-music-to-becalm-a-sweet-sick-youth.html, id L05281.
Form and metre
244. To Music, to Becalm a Sweet-Sick Youth is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDD sphereA · hereA · soB · woeB · keepC · sleepC · painD · againD
- 2 AABBCCDD appearA · hereA · lookB · bookB · museC · chooseC · herD · sirD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Charms, that call down the moon from out her sphere, | 10 | ·········· |
| On this sick youth work your enchantments here: | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Bind up his senses with your numbers so | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As to entrance his pain, or cure his woe. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Fall gently, gently, and a while him keep | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Lost in the civil wilderness of sleep: | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| That done, then let him, dispossessed of pain, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Like to a slumb'ring bride, awake again. | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| Never my book's perfection did appear | 10 | /˘··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Till I had got the name of Villars here: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Now 'tis so full that when therein I look | 10 | ·········· |
| I see a cloud of glory fills my book. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Here stand it still to dignify our Muse, | 10 | ·····/˘·/· |
| Your sober handmaid, who doth wisely choose | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Your name to be a laureate wreath to her | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who doth both love and fear you, honoured sir. | 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.