684. To Dianeme. A Ceremony in Gloucester
I'll to thee a simnel bring,'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering:So that when she blesseth thee,Half that blessing thou'lt give me.
Words in this poem
- simnel n.
- A kind of cake made of fine flour; a cracknel. [OF. simenel cake or bread of wheat flour, LL. simenellus wheat bread, fr. L. simila the finest wheat flour. Cf. Semolina.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
684. To Dianeme. A Ceremony in Gloucester 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, 684. To Dianeme. A Ceremony in Gloucester, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/684-to-dianeme-a-ceremony-in-gloucester.html, id L05632.
Form and metre
684. To Dianeme. A Ceremony in Gloucester is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 92% 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.
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 AABB bringA · motheringA · theeB · meB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I'll to thee a simnel bring, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| 'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering: | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| So that when she blesseth thee, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Half that blessing thou'lt give me. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Simnel: a cake, originally made of fine flour, eaten at Mid-Lent · A-mothering: visiting relations in Mid-Lent, but see Note
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.