591. The Headache
My head doth ache,O Sappho! takeThy fillet,And bind the pain,Or bring some baneTo kill it.
But less that partThan my poor heartNow is sick;One kiss from theeWill counsel beAnd physic.
Words in this poem
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
- sappho n.
- Any one of several species of brilliant South American humming birds of the genus Sappho, having very bright-colored and deeply forked tails; -- called also firetail. [See Sapphic.]
- bane v. t.
- To be the bane of; to ruin. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
591. The Headache 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, 591. The Headache, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/591-the-headache.html, id L05554.
Form and metre
591. The Headache is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. 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 3.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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 AA-BB- acheA · takeA · fillet · painB · baneB · it
- 2 AA-BB- partA · heartA · sick · theeB · beB · physic
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My head doth ache, | 4 | ···· |
| O Sappho! take | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Thy fillet, | 3 | ·˘/ |
| And bind the pain, | 4 | ···· |
| Or bring some bane | 4 | ···· |
| To kill it. | 3 | ··· |
| But less that part | 4 | ···· |
| Than my poor heart | 4 | ···· |
| Now is sick; | 3 | ··· |
| One kiss from thee | 4 | ···· |
| Will counsel be | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And physic. | 3 | ·/˘ |
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.