736. The Smell of the Sacrifice
The gods require the thighsOf beeves for sacrifice;Which roasted, we the steamMust sacrifice to them,Who though they do not eat,Yet love the smell of meat.
Words in this poem
- beeves n.
- ; plural of Beef, the animal.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
736. The Smell of the Sacrifice 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, 736. The Smell of the Sacrifice, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/736-the-smell-of-the-sacrifice.html, id L05678.
Form and metre
736. The Smell of the Sacrifice is 6 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 thighs · sacrifice · steam · them · eatA · meatA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The gods require the thighs | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Of beeves for sacrifice; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Which roasted, we the steam | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Must sacrifice to them, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Who though they do not eat, | 6 | ······ |
| Yet love the smell of meat. | 6 | ······ |
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.