27. Upon Julia's Fall
Julia was careless, and withalShe rather took than got a fall,The wanton ambler chanc'd to seePart of her legs' sincerity:And ravish'd thus, it came to pass,The nag (like to the prophet's ass)Began to speak, and would have beenA-telling what rare sights he'd seen:And had told all; but did refrainBecause his tongue was tied again.
Words in this poem
- withal adv.
- With this; with that. [With + all.]
- ambler n.
- A horse or a person that ambles.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
27. Upon Julia's Fall 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, 27. Upon Julia's Fall, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/27-upon-julia-s-fall.html, id L05090.
Form and metre
27. Upon Julia's Fall is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AA--BB--CC withalA · fallA · see · sincerity · passB · assB · been · seen · refrainC · againC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Julia was careless, and withal | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| She rather took than got a fall, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The wanton ambler chanc'd to see | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Part of her legs' sincerity: | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| And ravish'd thus, it came to pass, | 8 | ········ |
| The nag (like to the prophet's ass) | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Began to speak, and would have been | 8 | ˘/······ |
| A-telling what rare sights he'd seen: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And had told all; but did refrain | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Because his tongue was tied again. | 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.