398. Upon Eeles. Epig

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) · 1648

iambic tetrameter · 2 lines · from Hesperides

Eeles winds and turns, and cheats and steals; yet EelesDriving these sharking trades, is out at heels.

Words in this poem

sharking n.
Petty rapine; trick; also, seeking a livelihood by shifts and dishonest devices.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

398. Upon Eeles. Epig 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, 398. Upon Eeles. Epig, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/398-upon-eeles-epig.html, id L06340.

Form and metre

398. Upon Eeles. Epig is 2 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 10.0 syllables.

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.

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.

LineSyl.Stress
Eeles winds and turns, and cheats and steals; yet Eeles10··········
Driving these sharking trades, is out at heels.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.

More by Robert Herrick