72. To His Conscience
Can I not sin, but thou wilt beMy private protonotary?Can I not woo thee to pass byA short and sweet iniquity?I'll cast a mist and cloud uponMy delicate transgressionSo utter dark as that no eyeShall see the hugg'd impiety;Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do pleaseAnd wind all other witnesses;And wilt not thou with gold be ti'dTo lay thy pen and ink aside?That in the mirk and tongueless nightWanton I may, and thou not write?It will not be. And, therefore, now,For times to come I'll make this vow,From aberrations to live free;So I'll not fear the Judge or thee.
Words in this poem
- protonotary n.
- A chief notary or clerk. [LL. protonotarius, fr. Gr. prw os first + L. notarius a shorthand writer, a scribe: cf. F. protonotaire.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- impiety n.
- The quality of being impious; want of piety; irreverence toward the Supreme Being; ungodliness; wickedness. [L. impietas, fr. impius impious; cf. F. impiété. See Impious, Piety.]
- mirk a.
- Dark; gloomy; murky. Spenser. Mrs. Browning. [See Murky.]
- tongueless a.
- Having no tongue.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
72. To His Conscience 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, 72. To His Conscience, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/72-to-his-conscience.html, id L06083.
Form and metre
72. To His Conscience is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A-B-CCB-DDEEFFGGAA beA · protonotary · byB · iniquity · uponC · transgressionC · eyeB · impiety · pleaseD · witnessesD · ti'dE · asideE · nightF · writeF · nowG · vowG · freeA · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Can I not sin, but thou wilt be | 8 | ········ |
| My private protonotary? | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘˘ |
| Can I not woo thee to pass by | 8 | ········ |
| A short and sweet iniquity? | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| I'll cast a mist and cloud upon | 8 | ········ |
| My delicate transgression | 7 | ·/˘˘˘/˘ |
| So utter dark as that no eye | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Shall see the hugg'd impiety; | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do please | 8 | ········ |
| And wind all other witnesses; | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And wilt not thou with gold be ti'd | 8 | ········ |
| To lay thy pen and ink aside? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That in the mirk and tongueless night | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wanton I may, and thou not write? | 8 | /˘······ |
| It will not be. And, therefore, now, | 8 | ········ |
| For times to come I'll make this vow, | 8 | ········ |
| From aberrations to live free; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| So I'll not fear the Judge or thee. | 8 | ········ |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Protonotary: once the title of the chief clerk in the Courts of
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