346. A Hymn to Venus and Cupid
Sea-born goddess, let me beBy thy son thus grac'd and thee;That whene'er I woo, I findVirgins coy but not unkind.Let me when I kiss a maidTaste her lips so overlaidWith love's syrup, that I may,In your temple when I pray,Kiss the altar and confessThere's in love no bitterness.
Words in this poem
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- syrup n.
- A thick and viscid liquid made from the juice of fruits, herbs, etc., boiled with sugar. [F. sirop (cf. It. siroppo, Sp. jarabe, jarope, LL. siruppus, syrupus), fr. Ar. sharab a drink, wine, coffee, sirup. Cf. Sherbet.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
346. A Hymn to Venus and Cupid 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, 346. A Hymn to Venus and Cupid, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/346-a-hymn-to-venus-and-cupid.html, id L05366.
Form and metre
346. A Hymn to Venus and Cupid is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% 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. 50% 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 AABBCCDDEE beA · theeA · findB · unkindB · maidC · overlaidC · mayD · prayD · confessE · bitternessE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sea-born goddess, let me be | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| By thy son thus grac'd and thee; | 7 | ······· |
| That whene'er I woo, I find | 8 | ········ |
| Virgins coy but not unkind. | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Let me when I kiss a maid | 7 | ······· |
| Taste her lips so overlaid | 7 | ····/˘· |
| With love's syrup, that I may, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| In your temple when I pray, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Kiss the altar and confess | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| There's in love no bitterness. | 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.