46. To God
I'll come, I'll creep, though Thou dost threat,Humbly unto Thy mercy-seat:When I am there, this then I'll do,Give Thee a dart, and dagger too;Next, when I have my faults confessed,Naked I'll show a sighing breast;Which if that can't Thy pity woo,Then let Thy justice do the restAnd strike it through.
Words in this poem
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
46. To God 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, 46. To God, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/46-to-god.html, id L06057.
Form and metre
46. To God is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% 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 --AABBABA threat · seat · doA · tooA · confessedB · breastB · wooA · restB · throughA
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'll come, I'll creep, though Thou dost threat, | 8 | ········ |
| Humbly unto Thy mercy-seat: | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| When I am there, this then I'll do, | 8 | ········ |
| Give Thee a dart, and dagger too; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Next, when I have my faults confessed, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Naked I'll show a sighing breast; | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Which if that can't Thy pity woo, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Then let Thy justice do the rest | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And strike it through. | 4 | ···· |
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.