617. His Own Epitaph
As wearied pilgrims, once possestOf long'd-for lodging, go to rest,So I, now having rid my way,Fix here my button'd staff and stay.Youth, I confess, hath me misled;But age hath brought me right to bed.
About this text
617. His Own Epitaph 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, 617. His Own Epitaph, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/617-his-own-epitaph.html, id L05576.
Form and metre
617. His Own Epitaph is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCC possestA · restA · wayB · stayB · misledC · bedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As wearied pilgrims, once possest | 8 | ·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Of long'd-for lodging, go to rest, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So I, now having rid my way, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Fix here my button'd staff and stay. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Youth, I confess, hath me misled; | 9 | ··˘/··˘/˘ |
| But age hath brought me right to bed. | 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.