378. To His Valentine on St. Valentine's Day
Oft have I heard both youths and virgins sayBirds choose their mates, and couple too this day;But by their flight I never can divineWhen I shall couple with my valentine.
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,]
- valentine n.
- A sweetheart chosen on St. Valentine's Day.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
378. To His Valentine on St. Valentine's Day 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, 378. To His Valentine on St. Valentine's Day, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/378-to-his-valentine-on-st-valentine-s-day.html, id L05389.
Form and metre
378. To His Valentine on St. Valentine's Day is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABB sayA · dayA · divineB · valentineB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oft have I heard both youths and virgins say | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Birds choose their mates, and couple too this day; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But by their flight I never can divine | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| When I shall couple with my valentine. | 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.