286. Upon Love
Love's a thing, as I do hear,Ever full of pensive fear;Rather than to which I'll fall,Trust me, I'll not like at all.If to love I should intend,Let my hair then stand an end:And that terror likewise proveFatal to me in my love.But if horror cannot slakeFlames which would an entrance makeThen the next thing I desireIs, to love and live i' th' fire.
Words in this poem
- intend v. t.
- To stretch' to extend; to distend. [OE. entenden to be attentive, F. entendre, fr. L. intendre, intentum, and intensum, to intend, attend, stretch out, extend; pref. in- in + tendere to stretch, s]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
286. Upon Love 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, 286. Upon Love, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/286-upon-love.html, id L05316.
Form and metre
286. Upon Love is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 AABBCCDDEEFF hearA · fearA · fallB · allB · intendC · endC · proveD · loveD · slakeE · makeE · desireF · fireF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love's a thing, as I do hear, | 7 | ······· |
| Ever full of pensive fear; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Rather than to which I'll fall, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Trust me, I'll not like at all. | 7 | ······· |
| If to love I should intend, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Let my hair then stand an end: | 7 | ······· |
| And that terror likewise prove | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| Fatal to me in my love. | 7 | /˘····· |
| But if horror cannot slake | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Flames which would an entrance make | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Then the next thing I desire | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Is, to love and live i' th' fire. | 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.