42. To Love
I'm free from thee; and thou no more shalt hearMy puling pipe to beat against thine ear.Farewell my shackles, though of pearl they be;Such precious thraldom ne'er shall fetter me.He loves his bonds who, when the first are broke,Submits his neck unto a second yoke.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- puling n.
- A cry, as of a chicken,; a whining or whimpering.
- thraldom n.
- The condition of a thrall; slavery; bondage; state of servitude. [Icel. . See Thrall, and -dom.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
42. To Love 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, 42. To Love, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/42-to-love.html, id L05104.
Form and metre
42. To Love is 6 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 97%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 AABBCC hearA · earA · beB · meB · brokeC · yokeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I'm free from thee; and thou no more shalt hear | 10 | ·········· |
| My puling pipe to beat against thine ear. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Farewell my shackles, though of pearl they be; | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Such precious thraldom ne'er shall fetter me. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| He loves his bonds who, when the first are broke, | 10 | ·········· |
| Submits his neck unto a second yoke. | 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.