652. Upon Skoles. Epig
Skoles stinks so deadly, that his breeches loathHis dampish buttocks furthermore to clothe;Cloy'd they are up with arse; but hope, one blastWill whirl about, and blow them thence at last.
Words in this poem
- loath a.
- Hateful; odious; disliked. [OE. looth, loth, AS. la hostile, odious; akin to OS. l, G. leid, Icel. lei, Sw. led, G. leiden to suffer, OHG. lidan to suffer, go, cf. AS. li to go, Goth. leip]
- dampish a.
- Moderately damp or moist.
- furthermore adv.
- or conj. Moreover; besides; in addition to what has been said.
- arse n.
- The buttocks, or hind part of an animal; the posteriors; the fundament; the bottom.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
652. Upon Skoles. Epig 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, 652. Upon Skoles. Epig, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/652-upon-skoles-epig.html, id L06391.
Form and metre
652. Upon Skoles. Epig is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 loath · clothe · blastA · lastA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Skoles stinks so deadly, that his breeches loath | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| His dampish buttocks furthermore to clothe; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Cloy'd they are up with arse; but hope, one blast | 10 | ·········· |
| Will whirl about, and blow them thence at last. | 10 | ·········· |
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.