456. Upon Himself
Come, leave this loathed country life, and thenGrow up to be a Roman citizen.Those mites of time, which yet remain unspent,Waste thou in that most civil government.Get their comportment and the gliding tongueOf those mild men thou art to live among;Then, being seated in that smoother sphere,Decree thy everlasting topic there;And to the farm-house ne'er return at all:Though granges do not love thee, cities shall.
Words in this poem
- comportment n.
- Manner of acting; behavior; bearing. [F. comportement.]
- smoother n.
- One who, or that which, smooths.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
456. Upon Himself 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, 456. Upon Himself, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/456-upon-himself.html, id L05441.
Form and metre
456. Upon Himself is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDD-- thenA · citizenA · unspentB · governmentB · tongueC · amongC · sphereD · thereD · all · shall
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come, leave this loathed country life, and then | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Grow up to be a Roman citizen. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Those mites of time, which yet remain unspent, | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| Waste thou in that most civil government. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Get their comportment and the gliding tongue | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of those mild men thou art to live among; | 10 | ·········· |
| Then, being seated in that smoother sphere, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Decree thy everlasting topic there; | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘/˘· |
| And to the farm-house ne'er return at all: | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Though granges do not love thee, cities shall. | 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.