41. The Vine
I dreamt this mortal part of mineWas metamorphos'd to a vine;Which crawling one and every wayEnthrall'd my dainty Lucia.Methought, her long small legs and thighsI with my tendrils did surprise;Her belly, buttocks, and her waistBy my soft nerv'lets were embrac'd;About her head I writhing hung, }And with rich clusters, hid among }The leaves, her temples I behung: }So that my Lucia seem'd to meYoung Bacchus ravish'd by his tree.My curls about her neck did crawl,And arms and hands they did enthrall:So that she could not freely stir,All parts there made one prisoner.But when I crept with leaves to hideThose parts, which maids keep unespy'd,Such fleeting pleasures there I took,That with the fancy I awoke;And found, ah me! this flesh of mineMore like a stock than like a vine.
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.]
- crawl v. i.
- To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and kness; to creep. [Dan. kravle, or Icel. krafla, to paw, scrabble with the hands; akin to Sw. kr to crawl; cf. LG. krabbeln, D. krabbelen to scratch.]
- enthrall v. t.
- To hold in thrall; to enslave. See Inthrall. [Pref. en- + thrall. Cf. Inthrall.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
41. The Vine 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, 41. The Vine, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/41-the-vine.html, id L06293.
Form and metre
41. The Vine is 23 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AA--BBCCDDDEEFF------AA mineA · vineA · way · lucia · thighsB · surpriseB · waistC · embrac'dC · — · — · — · meE · treeE · crawlF · enthrallF · stir · prisoner · hide · unespy'd · took · awoke · mineA · vineA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I dreamt this mortal part of mine | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Was metamorphos'd to a vine; | 8 | ········ |
| Which crawling one and every way | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Enthrall'd my dainty Lucia. | 7 | ˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Methought, her long small legs and thighs | 8 | ˘/······ |
| I with my tendrils did surprise; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Her belly, buttocks, and her waist | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| By my soft nerv'lets were embrac'd; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| About her head I writhing hung, } | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And with rich clusters, hid among } | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The leaves, her temples I behung: } | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So that my Lucia seem'd to me | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Young Bacchus ravish'd by his tree. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| My curls about her neck did crawl, | 8 | ········ |
| And arms and hands they did enthrall: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| So that she could not freely stir, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| All parts there made one prisoner. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| But when I crept with leaves to hide | 8 | ········ |
| Those parts, which maids keep unespy'd, | 8 | ········ |
| Such fleeting pleasures there I took, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| That with the fancy I awoke; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And found, ah me! this flesh of mine | 8 | ········ |
| More like a stock than like a vine. | 8 | ········ |
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.