495. To the Water Nymphs Drinking at the Fountain
Reach, with your whiter hands, to meSome crystal of the spring;And I about the cup shall seeFresh lilies flourishing.
Or else, sweet nymphs, do you but this,To th' glass your lips incline;And I shall see by that one kissThe water turn'd to wine.
Words in this poem
- 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
495. To the Water Nymphs Drinking at the Fountain 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, 495. To the Water Nymphs Drinking at the Fountain, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/495-to-the-water-nymphs-drinking-at-the-fountain.html, id L05474.
Form and metre
495. To the Water Nymphs Drinking at the Fountain is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB meA · springB · seeA · flourishingB
- 2 ABAB thisA · inclineB · kissA · wineB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Reach, with your whiter hands, to me | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Some crystal of the spring; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And I about the cup shall see | 8 | ········ |
| Fresh lilies flourishing. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Or else, sweet nymphs, do you but this, | 8 | ········ |
| To th' glass your lips incline; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And I shall see by that one kiss | 8 | ········ |
| The water turn'd to wine. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.