39. Upon the Loss of His Mistresses
I have lost, and lately, theseMany dainty mistresses:Stately Julia, prime of all:Sappho next, a principal:Smooth Anthea for a skinWhite, and heaven-like crystalline:Sweet Electra, and the choiceMyrrha for the lute and voice:Next Corinna, for her wit,And the graceful use of it:With Perilla: all are gone;Only Herrick's left aloneFor to number sorrow byTheir departures hence, and die.
Words in this poem
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- sappho n.
- Any one of several species of brilliant South American humming birds of the genus Sappho, having very bright-colored and deeply forked tails; -- called also firetail. [See Sapphic.]
- perilla n.
- A genus of labiate herbs, of which one species (Perilla ocimoides, or P. Nankinensis) is often cultivated for its purple or variegated foliage. [Etymol. uncertain.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
39. Upon the Loss of His Mistresses 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, 39. Upon the Loss of His Mistresses, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/39-upon-the-loss-of-his-mistresses.html, id L05102.
Form and metre
39. Upon the Loss of His Mistresses is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABB--CCDD--EE theseA · mistressesA · allB · principalB · skin · crystalline · choiceC · voiceC · witD · itD · gone · alone · byE · dieE
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have lost, and lately, these | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Many dainty mistresses: | 7 | /˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Stately Julia, prime of all: | 7 | /˘····· |
| Sappho next, a principal: | 7 | /˘··/˘˘ |
| Smooth Anthea for a skin | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| White, and heaven-like crystalline: | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Sweet Electra, and the choice | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Myrrha for the lute and voice: | 7 | ······· |
| Next Corinna, for her wit, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the graceful use of it: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| With Perilla: all are gone; | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Only Herrick's left alone | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| For to number sorrow by | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Their departures hence, and die. | 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.