565. Upon Love
I played with Love, as with the fireThe wanton Satyr did;Nor did I know, or could descryWhat under there was hid.
That Satyr he but burnt his lips;But mine's the greater smart,For kissing Love's dissembling chipsThe fire scorch'd my heart.
Words in this poem
- satyr n.
- A sylvan deity or demigod, represented as part man and part goat, and characterized by riotous merriment and lasciviousness. [L. satyrus, Gr. satyre.]
- descry
- , Discovery or view, as of an army seen at a distance.
- dissembling a.
- That dissembles; hypocritical; false.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
565. 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, 565. Upon Love, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/565-upon-love.html, id L05532.
Form and metre
565. Upon Love is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 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 -A-A fire · didA · descry · hidA
- 2 ABAB lipsA · smartB · chipsA · heartB
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 played with Love, as with the fire | 10 | ··˘·····/˘ |
| The wanton Satyr did; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Nor did I know, or could descry | 8 | ······˘/ |
| What under there was hid. | 6 | ······ |
| That Satyr he but burnt his lips; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But mine's the greater smart, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For kissing Love's dissembling chips | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The fire scorch'd my heart. | 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.