581. The Tithe. To the Bride
If nine times you your bridegroom kiss,The tenth you know the parson's is.Pay then your tithe, and doing thus,Prove in your bride-bed numerous.If children you have ten, Sir JohnWon't for his tenth part ask you one.
Words in this poem
- bridegroom n.
- A man newly married, or just about to be married. [OE. bridegome, brudgume, AS. br (akin to OS. br, D. bruidegom, bruigom, OHG. pr, MHG. briutegome, G. bräutigam); AS. br bride + guma man, akin to Goth. guma, Ic]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
581. The Tithe. To the Bride 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, 581. The Tithe. To the Bride, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/581-the-tithe-to-the-bride.html, id L05546.
Form and metre
581. The Tithe. To the Bride is 6 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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-AA-- kissA · is · thusA · numerousA · john · one
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If nine times you your bridegroom kiss, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The tenth you know the parson's is. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Pay then your tithe, and doing thus, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Prove in your bride-bed numerous. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| If children you have ten, Sir John | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Won't for his tenth part ask you one. | 8 | ········ |
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.