693. Upon Tuck. Epig

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) · 1648

iambic tetrameter · 2 lines · from Hesperides

At post and pair, or slam, Tom Tuck would playThis Christmas, but his want wherewith says nay.

Words in this poem

slam v. t.
To shut with force and a loud noise; to bang; as, he slammed the door. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. slamra, slambra, sl, Norw. slemba, slemma, dial. Sw. slämma.]
wherewith adv.
With which; -- used relatively.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

693. Upon Tuck. 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, 693. Upon Tuck. Epig, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/693-upon-tuck-epig.html, id L05641.

Form and metre

693. Upon Tuck. Epig is 2 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 10.0 syllables.

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. 1 AA playA · nayA
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.

LineSyl.Stress
At post and pair, or slam, Tom Tuck would play10··········
This Christmas, but his want wherewith says nay.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.

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