56. To His Angry God
Through all the nightThou dost me fright,And hold'st mine eyes from sleeping;And day by day,My cup can sayMy wine is mix'd with weeping.
Thou dost my breadWith ashes kneadEach evening and each morrow;Mine eye and earDo see and hearThe coming in of sorrow.
Thy scourge of steel,Ah me! I feelUpon me beating ever:While my sick heartWith dismal smartIs disacquainted never.
Long, long, I'm sure,This can't endure,But in short time 'twill please Thee,My gentle God,To burn the rod,Or strike so as to ease me.
Words in this poem
- knead v. t.
- To work and press into a mass, usually with the hands; esp., to work, as by repeated pressure with the knuckles, into a well mixed mass, as the materials of bread, cake, etc.; as, to knead dough. [OE. kneden, As. cnedan; akin to D. kneden, G. kneten, Sw. kn, Icel. kno; cf. OSlav.gnesti.]
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
56. To His Angry 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, 56. To His Angry God, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/56-to-his-angry-god.html, id L06067.
Form and metre
56. To His Angry God is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 AABCCB nightA · frightA · sleepingB · dayC · sayC · weepingB
- 2 --ABBA bread · knead · morrowA · earB · hearB · sorrowA
- 3 AABCCB steelA · feelA · everB · heartC · smartC · neverB
- 4 AABCCB sureA · endureA · theeB · godC · rodC · meB
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Through all the night | 4 | ···· |
| Thou dost me fright, | 4 | ···· |
| And hold'st mine eyes from sleeping; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And day by day, | 4 | ···· |
| My cup can say | 4 | ···· |
| My wine is mix'd with weeping. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Thou dost my bread | 4 | ···· |
| With ashes knead | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Each evening and each morrow; | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Mine eye and ear | 4 | ···· |
| Do see and hear | 4 | ···· |
| The coming in of sorrow. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Thy scourge of steel, | 4 | ···· |
| Ah me! I feel | 4 | ···· |
| Upon me beating ever: | 6 | ···/˘/ |
| While my sick heart | 4 | ···· |
| With dismal smart | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Is disacquainted never. | 6 | ·····/ |
| Long, long, I'm sure, | 4 | ···· |
| This can't endure, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| But in short time 'twill please Thee, | 7 | ······· |
| My gentle God, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To burn the rod, | 4 | ···· |
| Or strike so as to ease me. | 7 | ······· |
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.