31. No Spouse but a Sister
A bachelor I willLive as I have liv'd still,And never take a wifeTo crucify my life;But this I'll tell ye too,What now I mean to do:A sister (in the steadOf wife) about I'll lead;Which I will keep embrac'd,And kiss, but yet be chaste.
Words in this poem
- crucify v. t.
- To fasten to a cross; to put to death by nailing the hands and feet to a cross or gibbet. [F. crucifier, fr. (assumed) LL. crucificare, for crucifigere, fr, L. crux, crucis, cross + figere to fix, the ending - figere being changed to -ficare, F. -fier]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
31. No Spouse but a Sister 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, 31. No Spouse but a Sister, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/31-no-spouse-but-a-sister.html, id L05094.
Form and metre
31. No Spouse but a Sister is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AABBCCDDEE willA · stillA · wifeB · lifeB · tooC · doC · steadD · leadD · embrac'dE · chasteE
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A bachelor I will | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Live as I have liv'd still, | 6 | ······ |
| And never take a wife | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To crucify my life; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But this I'll tell ye too, | 6 | ······ |
| What now I mean to do: | 6 | ······ |
| A sister (in the stead | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Of wife) about I'll lead; | 6 | ······ |
| Which I will keep embrac'd, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And kiss, but yet be chaste. | 6 | ······ |
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.