665. What Kind of Mistress He Would Have
Be the mistress of my choiceClean in manners, clear in voice;Be she witty more than wise,Pure enough, though not precise;Be she showing in her dressLike a civil wilderness;That the curious may detectOrder in a sweet neglect;Be she rolling in her eye,Tempting all the passers-by;And each ringlet of her hairAn enchantment, or a snareFor to catch the lookers-on;But herself held fast by none.Let her Lucrece all day be,Thais in the night to me.Be she such as neither willFamish me, nor overfill.
Words in this poem
- witty a.
- Possessed of wit; knowing; wise; skillful; judicious; clever; cunning. [AS. witig, wittig. See Wit, n.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- ringlet n.
- A small ring; a small circle; specifically, a fairy ring. [Ring + -let.]
- famish v. t.
- To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger. [OE. famen; cf. OF. afamer, L. fames. See Famine, and cf. Affamish.]
- overfill v. t.
- To fill to excess; to surcharge.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
665. What Kind of Mistress He Would Have 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, 665. What Kind of Mistress He Would Have, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/665-what-kind-of-mistress-he-would-have.html, id L05615.
Form and metre
665. What Kind of Mistress He Would Have is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AA-BBACCDDEE--FFGG choiceA · voiceA · wise · preciseB · dressB · wildernessA · detectC · neglectC · eyeD · byD · hairE · snareE · on · none · beF · meF · willG · overfillG
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Be the mistress of my choice | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Clean in manners, clear in voice; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Be she witty more than wise, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Pure enough, though not precise; | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Be she showing in her dress | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Like a civil wilderness; | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| That the curious may detect | 8 | ··/˘˘·˘/ |
| Order in a sweet neglect; | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Be she rolling in her eye, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Tempting all the passers-by; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| And each ringlet of her hair | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| An enchantment, or a snare | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| For to catch the lookers-on; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But herself held fast by none. | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Let her Lucrece all day be, | 7 | ······· |
| Thais in the night to me. | 6 | ······ |
| Be she such as neither will | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Famish me, nor overfill. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
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.