364. Chop-Cherry
Thou gav'st me leave to kiss,Thou gav'st me leave to woo;Thou mad'st me think, by thisAnd that, thou lov'dst me too.
But I shall ne'er forgetHow, for to make thee merry,Thou mad'st me chop, but yetAnother snapp'd the cherry.
Words in this poem
- 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
364. Chop-Cherry 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, 364. Chop-Cherry, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/364-chop-cherry.html, id L05380.
Form and metre
364. Chop-Cherry is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABAB kissA · wooB · thisA · tooB
- 2 ABAB forgetA · merryB · yetA · cherryB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou gav'st me leave to kiss, | 6 | ······ |
| Thou gav'st me leave to woo; | 6 | ······ |
| Thou mad'st me think, by this | 6 | ······ |
| And that, thou lov'dst me too. | 6 | ······ |
| But I shall ne'er forget | 6 | ····˘/ |
| How, for to make thee merry, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Thou mad'st me chop, but yet | 6 | ······ |
| Another snapp'd the cherry. | 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.