46. Upon Cupid
Old wives have often told how theySaw Cupid bitten by a flea;And thereupon, in tears half drown'd,He cried aloud: Help, help the wound!He wept, he sobb'd, he call'd to someTo bring him lint and balsamum,To make a tent, and put it inWhere the stiletto pierced the skin;Which, being done, the fretful painAssuaged, and he was well again.
Words in this poem
- cupid
- The god of love, son of Venus; usually represented as a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow. [L.Cupido, fr. cupido desire, desire of love, fr. cupidus. See Cupidity.]
- thereupon adv.
- Upon that or this; thereon.
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
46. Upon Cupid 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. Upon Cupid, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/46-upon-cupid.html, id L05108.
Form and metre
46. Upon Cupid is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 --AA--BBCC they · flea · drown'dA · woundA · some · balsamum · inB · skinB · painC · againC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Old wives have often told how they | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Saw Cupid bitten by a flea; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And thereupon, in tears half drown'd, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| He cried aloud: Help, help the wound! | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| He wept, he sobb'd, he call'd to some | 8 | ········ |
| To bring him lint and balsamum, | 8 | ········ |
| To make a tent, and put it in | 8 | ········ |
| Where the stiletto pierced the skin; | 9 | ··˘/˘·˘·· |
| Which, being done, the fretful pain | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Assuaged, and he was well again. | 9 | ˘/˘····˘/ |
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.