452. To Jealousy
O jealousy, that artThe canker of the heart;And mak'st all hellWhere thou do'st dwell;For pity beNo fury, or no firebrand to me.
Far from me I'll removeAll thoughts of irksome love:And turn to snow,Or crystal grow,To keep still free,O! soul-tormenting jealousy, from thee.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- firebrand n.
- A piece of burning wood. L'Estrange.
- irksome a.
- Wearisome; tedious; disagreeable or troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition; as, irksome hours; irksome tasks.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
452. To Jealousy 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, 452. To Jealousy, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/452-to-jealousy.html, id L05438.
Form and metre
452. To Jealousy is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 artA · heartA · hellB · dwellB · beC · meC
- 2 AABBCC removeA · loveA · snowB · growB · freeC · theeC
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O jealousy, that art | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| The canker of the heart; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And mak'st all hell | 4 | ···· |
| Where thou do'st dwell; | 4 | ···· |
| For pity be | 4 | ·/˘· |
| No fury, or no firebrand to me. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Far from me I'll remove | 6 | ····˘/ |
| All thoughts of irksome love: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And turn to snow, | 4 | ···· |
| Or crystal grow, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To keep still free, | 4 | ···· |
| O! soul-tormenting jealousy, from thee. | 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.