289. To All Young Men That Love
I could wish you all who love,That ye could your thoughts removeFrom your mistresses, and beWisely wanton, like to me,I could wish you dispossessedOf that fiend that mars your rest,And with tapers comes to frightYour weak senses in the night.I could wish ye all who fryCold as ice, or cool as I;But if flames best like ye, then,Much good do 't ye, gentlemen.I a merry heart will keep,While you wring your hands and weep.
About this text
289. To All Young Men That 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, 289. To All Young Men That Love, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/289-to-all-young-men-that-love.html, id L05319.
Form and metre
289. To All Young Men That Love is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 95% 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. 36% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG loveA · removeA · beB · meB · dispossessedC · restC · frightD · nightD · fryE · iE · thenF · gentlemenF · keepG · weepG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I could wish you all who love, | 7 | ······· |
| That ye could your thoughts remove | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| From your mistresses, and be | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Wisely wanton, like to me, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| I could wish you dispossessed | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Of that fiend that mars your rest, | 7 | ······· |
| And with tapers comes to fright | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Your weak senses in the night. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I could wish ye all who fry | 7 | ······· |
| Cold as ice, or cool as I; | 7 | ······· |
| But if flames best like ye, then, | 7 | ······· |
| Much good do 't ye, gentlemen. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| I a merry heart will keep, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| While you wring your hands and weep. | 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.