248. Co-Heirs
We are co-heirs with Christ; nor shall His ownHeirship be less by our adoption.The number here of heirs shall from the stateOf His great birthright nothing derogate.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- heirship n.
- The state, character, or privileges of an heir; right of inheriting. Heirship movables, certain kinds of movables which the heir is entitled to take, besides the heritable estate.
- derogate v. t.
- To annul in part; to repeal partly; to restrict; to limit the action of; -- said of a law. [L. derogatus, p. p. of derogare to derogate; de- + rogare to ask, to ask the people about a law. See Rogation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
248. Co-Heirs 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, 248. Co-Heirs, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/248-co-heirs.html, id L06259.
Form and metre
248. Co-Heirs is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 ownA · adoptionA · stateB · derogateB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We are co-heirs with Christ; nor shall His own | 10 | ·········· |
| Heirship be less by our adoption. | 10 | /˘···/˘˘/˘ |
| The number here of heirs shall from the state | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of His great birthright nothing derogate. | 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.