563. Upon Sibilla
With paste of almonds, Syb her hands doth scour;Then gives it to the children to devour.In cream she bathes her thighs, more soft than silk;Then to the poor she freely gives the milk.
About this text
563. Upon Sibilla 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, 563. Upon Sibilla, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/563-upon-sibilla.html, id L06373.
Form and metre
563. Upon Sibilla is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABB scourA · devourA · silkB · milkB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| With paste of almonds, Syb her hands doth scour; | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Then gives it to the children to devour. | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| In cream she bathes her thighs, more soft than silk; | 10 | ·········· |
| Then to the poor she freely gives the milk. | 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.