393. Lar's Portion and the Poet's Part
At my homely country-seatI have there a little wheat,Which I work to meal, and makeTherewithal a holy cake:Part of which I give to Lar,Part is my peculiar.
Words in this poem
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- therewithal adv.
- Over and above; besides; moreover. Daniel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
393. Lar's Portion and the Poet's Part 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, 393. Lar's Portion and the Poet's Part, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/393-lar-s-portion-and-the-poet-s-part.html, id L05400.
Form and metre
393. Lar's Portion and the Poet's Part is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 AABB-- seatA · wheatA · makeB · cakeB · lar · peculiar
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At my homely country-seat | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| I have there a little wheat, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Which I work to meal, and make | 7 | ······· |
| Therewithal a holy cake: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Part of which I give to Lar, | 7 | ······· |
| Part is my peculiar. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
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.