376. Upon His Kinswoman, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick
Sweet virgin, that I do not setThe pillars up of weeping jetOr mournful marble, let thy shadeNot wrathful seem, or fright the maidWho hither at her wonted hoursShall come to strew thy earth with flowers.No; know, bless'd maid, when there's not oneRemainder left of brass or stone,Thy living epitaph shall be,Though lost in them, yet found in me;Dear, in thy bed of roses then,Till this world shall dissolve as men,Sleep while we hide thee from the light,Drawing thy curtains round: Good-night.
Words in this poem
- wrathful a.
- Full of wrath; very angry; greatly incensed; ireful; passionate; as, a wrathful man.
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- 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
376. Upon His Kinswoman, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick 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, 376. Upon His Kinswoman, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/376-upon-his-kinswoman-mistress-elizabeth-herrick.html, id L05387.
Form and metre
376. Upon His Kinswoman, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 86% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% 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 AABBCC--DDEEFF setA · jetA · shadeB · maidB · hoursC · flowersC · one · stone · beD · meD · thenE · menE · lightF · nightF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet virgin, that I do not set | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The pillars up of weeping jet | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or mournful marble, let thy shade | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Not wrathful seem, or fright the maid | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who hither at her wonted hours | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Shall come to strew thy earth with flowers. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| No; know, bless'd maid, when there's not one | 8 | ········ |
| Remainder left of brass or stone, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Thy living epitaph shall be, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Though lost in them, yet found in me; | 8 | ········ |
| Dear, in thy bed of roses then, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Till this world shall dissolve as men, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Sleep while we hide thee from the light, | 8 | ········ |
| Drawing thy curtains round: Good-night. | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
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.