459. To the Right Honourable Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland
You are a lord, an earl, nay more, a manWho writes sweet numbers well as any can;If so, why then are not these verses hurled,Like Sybil's leaves, throughout the ample world?What is a jewel if it be not setForth by a ring or some rich carcanet?But being so, then the beholders cry:See, see a gem as rare as Belus' eye.Then public praise does run upon the stone,For a most rich, a rare, a precious one.Expose your jewels then unto the view,That we may praise them, or themselves prize you.Virtue concealed, with Horace you'll confess,Differs not much from drowsy slothfulness.
Words in this poem
- carcanet n.
- A jeweled chain, necklace, or collar. [Also written carkenet and carcant.] [Dim. fr. F. carcan the iron collar or chain of a criminal, a chain of preciousstones, LL. carcannum, fr. Armor. kerchen bosom, neck, kechen collar, fr. kelch ci]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
459. To the Right Honourable Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland 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, 459. To the Right Honourable Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/459-to-the-right-honourable-mildmay-earl-of-westmoreland.html, id L05444.
Form and metre
459. To the Right Honourable Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 86% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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--EEFF manA · canA · hurledB · worldB · setC · carcanetC · cryD · eyeD · stone · one · viewE · youE · confessF · slothfulnessF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You are a lord, an earl, nay more, a man | 10 | ·········· |
| Who writes sweet numbers well as any can; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| If so, why then are not these verses hurled, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Like Sybil's leaves, throughout the ample world? | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| What is a jewel if it be not set | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Forth by a ring or some rich carcanet? | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| But being so, then the beholders cry: | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| See, see a gem as rare as Belus' eye. | 10 | ·········· |
| Then public praise does run upon the stone, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| For a most rich, a rare, a precious one. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Expose your jewels then unto the view, | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| That we may praise them, or themselves prize you. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Virtue concealed, with Horace you'll confess, | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Differs not much from drowsy slothfulness. | 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.