509. Upon Love
I held Love's head while it did ache;But so it chanc'd to be,The cruel pain did his forsake,And forthwith came to me.
Ay me! how shall my grief be still'd?Or where else shall we findOne like to me, who must be kill'dFor being too-too kind?
Words in this poem
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
- forthwith adv.
- Immediately; without delay; directly.
- 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
509. Upon Love 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, 509. Upon Love, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/509-upon-love.html, id L05486.
Form and metre
509. Upon Love 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 85%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 25% 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 acheA · beB · forsakeA · meB
- 2 ABAB still'dA · findB · kill'dA · kindB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I held Love's head while it did ache; | 8 | ········ |
| But so it chanc'd to be, | 6 | ······ |
| The cruel pain did his forsake, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And forthwith came to me. | 6 | ·//··· |
| Ay me! how shall my grief be still'd? | 8 | ········ |
| Or where else shall we find | 6 | ······ |
| One like to me, who must be kill'd | 8 | ········ |
| For being too-too kind? | 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.