365. To the Most Learned, Wise, and Arch-Antiquary, M. John Selden
I, who have favour'd many, come to beGrac'd now, at last, or glorified by thee,Lo! I, the lyric prophet, who have setOn many a head the delphic coronet,Come unto thee for laurel, having spentMy wreaths on those who little gave or lent.Give me the daphne, that the world may know it,Whom they neglected thou hast crown'd a poet.A city here of heroes I have madeUpon the rock whose firm foundation laid,Shall never shrink; where, making thine abode,Live thou a Selden, that's a demi-god.
Words in this poem
- delphic a.
- Of or relating to Delphi, or to the famous oracle of that place. [L. Delphicus, fr. Gr. Delphi, a town of Phocis, in Greece, now Kastri.]
- daphne n.
- A genus of diminutive Shrubs, mostly evergreen, and with fragrant blossoms. [L., a laurel tree, from Gr. .]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- 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,]
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
365. To the Most Learned, Wise, and Arch-Antiquary, M. John Selden 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, 365. To the Most Learned, Wise, and Arch-Antiquary, M. John Selden, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/365-to-the-most-learned-wise-and-arch-antiquary-m-john-selde.html, id L05381.
Form and metre
365. To the Most Learned, Wise, and Arch-Antiquary, M. John Selden is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, 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 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCC-BDD-- beA · theeA · setB · coronetB · spentC · lentC · it · poetB · madeD · laidD · abode · god
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I, who have favour'd many, come to be | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Grac'd now, at last, or glorified by thee, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Lo! I, the lyric prophet, who have set | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| On many a head the delphic coronet, | 10 | ·/···/˘/˘/ |
| Come unto thee for laurel, having spent | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| My wreaths on those who little gave or lent. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Give me the daphne, that the world may know it, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Whom they neglected thou hast crown'd a poet. | 11 | ··˘/˘····/˘ |
| A city here of heroes I have made | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Upon the rock whose firm foundation laid, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Shall never shrink; where, making thine abode, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Live thou a Selden, that's a demi-god. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
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.