285. Upon Himself
I am sieve-like, and can holdNothing hot or nothing cold.Put in love, and put in tooJealousy, and both will through:Put in fear, and hope, and doubt;What comes in runs quickly out:Put in secrecies withal,Whate'er enters, out it shall:But if you can stop the sieve,For mine own part, I'd as liefMaids should say or virgins sing,Herrick keeps, as holds nothing.
Words in this poem
- withal adv.
- With this; with that. [With + all.]
- 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
285. Upon Himself 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, 285. Upon Himself, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/285-upon-himself.html, id L05315.
Form and metre
285. Upon Himself is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCC----DD holdA · coldA · tooB · throughB · doubtC · outC · withal · shall · sieve · lief · singD · nothingD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I am sieve-like, and can hold | 7 | ······· |
| Nothing hot or nothing cold. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Put in love, and put in too | 7 | ······· |
| Jealousy, and both will through: | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Put in fear, and hope, and doubt; | 7 | ······· |
| What comes in runs quickly out: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Put in secrecies withal, | 7 | ··/˘˘˘/ |
| Whate'er enters, out it shall: | 8 | ˘˘//˘··· |
| But if you can stop the sieve, | 7 | ······· |
| For mine own part, I'd as lief | 7 | ······· |
| Maids should say or virgins sing, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Herrick keeps, as holds nothing. | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
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.