545. To His Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame
Nor is my number full till I inscribeThee, sprightly Soame, one of my righteous tribe;A tribe of one lip, leaven, and of oneCivil behaviour, and religion;A stock of saints, where ev'ry one doth wearA stole of white, and canonised here;Among which holies be thou ever known,Brave kinsman, mark'd out with the whiter stoneWhich seals thy glory, since I do preferThee here in my eternal calender.
Words in this poem
- inscribe v. t.
- To write or engrave; to mark down as something to be read; to imprint. [L. inscribere. See 1st In-, and Scribe.]
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- kinsman n.
- A man of the same race or family; one related by blood.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
545. To His Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame 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, 545. To His Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/545-to-his-worthy-kinsman-mr-stephen-soame.html, id L05517.
Form and metre
545. To His Worthy Kinsman, Mr. Stephen Soame is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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-- inscribeA · tribeA · oneB · religionB · wearC · hereC · knownD · stoneD · prefer · calender
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nor is my number full till I inscribe | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thee, sprightly Soame, one of my righteous tribe; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A tribe of one lip, leaven, and of one | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Civil behaviour, and religion; | 9 | /˘˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| A stock of saints, where ev'ry one doth wear | 10 | ·········· |
| A stole of white, and canonised here; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| Among which holies be thou ever known, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Brave kinsman, mark'd out with the whiter stone | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Which seals thy glory, since I do prefer | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thee here in my eternal calender. | 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.