628. Upon Love
In a dream, Love bade me goTo the galleys there to row;In the vision I ask'd why?Love as briefly did reply,'Twas better there to toil, than proveThe turmoils they endure that love.I awoke, and then I knewWhat Love said was too-too true;Henceforth therefore I will be,As from love, from trouble free.None pities him that's in the snare,And, warned before, would not beware.
Words in this poem
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
- beware v. t.
- To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
628. 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, 628. Upon Love, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/628-upon-love.html, id L05587.
Form and metre
628. Upon Love is 12 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 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDDEEFF goA · rowA · whyB · replyB · proveC · loveC · knewD · trueD · beE · freeE · snareF · bewareF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In a dream, Love bade me go | 7 | ······· |
| To the galleys there to row; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| In the vision I ask'd why? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Love as briefly did reply, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| 'Twas better there to toil, than prove | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The turmoils they endure that love. | 8 | ·/··˘/·· |
| I awoke, and then I knew | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| What Love said was too-too true; | 7 | ······· |
| Henceforth therefore I will be, | 7 | //····· |
| As from love, from trouble free. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| None pities him that's in the snare, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And, warned before, would not beware. | 9 | ··˘····˘/ |
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.