25. To God
Do with me, God, as Thou didst deal with John,Who writ that heavenly Revelation.Let me, like him, first cracks of thunder hear,Then let the harps enchantments stroke mine ear:Here give me thorns, there, in Thy kingdom, setUpon my head the golden coronet;There give me day; but here my dreadful night:My sackcloth here; but there my stole of white.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- sackcloth n.
- Linen or cotton cloth such a sacks are made of; coarse cloth; anciently, a cloth or garment worn in mourning, distress, mortification, or penitence.
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
25. To God 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, 25. To God, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/25-to-god.html, id L06036.
Form and metre
25. To God is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 johnA · revelationA · hearB · earB · setC · coronetC · nightD · whiteD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Do with me, God, as Thou didst deal with John, | 10 | ·········· |
| Who writ that heavenly Revelation. | 10 | ···/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| Let me, like him, first cracks of thunder hear, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Then let the harps enchantments stroke mine ear: | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Here give me thorns, there, in Thy kingdom, set | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Upon my head the golden coronet; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘/ |
| There give me day; but here my dreadful night: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My sackcloth here; but there my stole of white. | 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.