38. To His Mistress Objecting to Him Neither Toying or Talking
You say I love not, 'cause I do not playStill with your curls, and kiss the time away.You blame me too, because I can't deviseSome sport to please those babies in your eyes:By love's religion, I must here confess it,The most I love when I the least express it.Small griefs find tongues: full casks are ever foundTo give (if any, yet) but little sound.Deep waters noiseless are; and this we know,That chiding streams betray small depth below.So, when love speechless is, she doth expressA depth in love and that depth bottomless.Now, since my love is tongueless, know me suchWho speak but little 'cause I love so much.
Words in this poem
- speechless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech.
- tongueless a.
- Having no tongue.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
38. To His Mistress Objecting to Him Neither Toying or Talking 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, 38. To His Mistress Objecting to Him Neither Toying or Talking, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/38-to-his-mistress-objecting-to-him-neither-toying-or-talkin.html, id L05101.
Form and metre
38. To His Mistress Objecting to Him Neither Toying or Talking is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG playA · awayA · deviseB · eyesB · itC · itC · foundD · soundD · knowE · belowE · expressF · bottomlessF · suchG · muchG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You say I love not, 'cause I do not play | 10 | ·········· |
| Still with your curls, and kiss the time away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| You blame me too, because I can't devise | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Some sport to please those babies in your eyes: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| By love's religion, I must here confess it, | 11 | ··˘/˘···˘/· |
| The most I love when I the least express it. | 11 | ········˘/· |
| Small griefs find tongues: full casks are ever found | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To give (if any, yet) but little sound. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Deep waters noiseless are; and this we know, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| That chiding streams betray small depth below. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| So, when love speechless is, she doth express | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| A depth in love and that depth bottomless. | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Now, since my love is tongueless, know me such | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who speak but little 'cause I love so much. | 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.