642. Farewell Frost, or Welcome the Spring
Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appearRe-cloth'd in fresh and verdant diaper.Thaw'd are the snows, and now the lusty springGives to each mead a neat enamelling.The palms put forth their gems, and every treeNow swaggers in her leafy gallantry.The while the Daulian minstrel sweetly sings,With warbling notes, her Terean sufferings.What gentle winds perspire! As if hereNever had been the northern plundererTo strip the trees and fields, to their distress,Leaving them to a pitied nakedness.And look how when a frantic storm doth tearA stubborn oak, or holm, long growing there,But lull'd to calmness, then succeeds a breezeThat scarcely stirs the nodding leaves of trees:So when this war, which tempest-like doth spoilOur salt, our corn, our honey, wine and oil,Falls to a temper, and doth mildly castHis inconsiderate frenzy off, at last,The gentle dove may, when these turmoils cease,Bring in her bill, once more, the branch of peace.
Words in this poem
- gallantry n.
- Splendor of appearance; ostentatious finery. [F. galanterie.]
- perspire v. i.
- To excrete matter through the skin; esp., to excrete fluids through the pores of the skin; to sweat. [L. perspirare to breathe through; per + spirare. See Per-, and Spirit.]
- nakedness n.
- The condition of being naked.
- holm n.
- A common evergreen oak, of Europe (Quercus Ilex); -- called also ilex, and holly. [OE., prob. from AS. holen holly; as the holly is also called holm. See Holly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
642. Farewell Frost, or Welcome the Spring 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, 642. Farewell Frost, or Welcome the Spring, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/642-farewell-frost-or-welcome-the-spring.html, id L05596.
Form and metre
642. Farewell Frost, or Welcome the Spring is 22 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 73% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 41% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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-BB--CCA-DDAAEEFFGGHH appearA · diaper · springB · enamellingB · tree · gallantry · singsC · sufferingsC · hereA · plunderer · distressD · nakednessD · tearA · thereA · breezeE · treesE · spoilF · oilF · castG · lastG · ceaseH · peaceH
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appear | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Re-cloth'd in fresh and verdant diaper. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Thaw'd are the snows, and now the lusty spring | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Gives to each mead a neat enamelling. | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| The palms put forth their gems, and every tree | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Now swaggers in her leafy gallantry. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| The while the Daulian minstrel sweetly sings, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| With warbling notes, her Terean sufferings. | 11 | ·/˘˘····/˘˘ |
| What gentle winds perspire! As if here | 9 | ·/˘·˘/··· |
| Never had been the northern plunderer | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| To strip the trees and fields, to their distress, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Leaving them to a pitied nakedness. | 10 | /˘···/·/˘˘ |
| And look how when a frantic storm doth tear | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A stubborn oak, or holm, long growing there, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| But lull'd to calmness, then succeeds a breeze | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| That scarcely stirs the nodding leaves of trees: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| So when this war, which tempest-like doth spoil | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Our salt, our corn, our honey, wine and oil, | 10 | /·/·//˘··· |
| Falls to a temper, and doth mildly cast | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| His inconsiderate frenzy off, at last, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| The gentle dove may, when these turmoils cease, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Bring in her bill, once more, the branch of peace. | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Gems: buds · Daulian minstrel: the nightingale Philomela · Terean sufferings: _i.e._, at the hands of Tereus
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