74. To God
God is all sufferance here; here He doth showNo arrow nockt, only a stringless bow:His arrows fly, and all His stones are hurl'dAgainst the wicked in another world.
Words in this poem
- sufferance n.
- The state of suffering; the bearing of pain; endurance. [OE. suffrance, OF. sufrance, soufrance, F. souffrance, L. sufferentia, from sufferens, -entis, p.pr. of sufferre. See Suffer.]
- stringless a.
- Having no strings.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
74. To God 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, 74. To God, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/74-to-god.html, id L06085.
Form and metre
74. To God is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 10.2 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 showA · bowA · hurl'dB · worldB
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.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| God is all sufferance here; here He doth show | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| No arrow nockt, only a stringless bow: | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| His arrows fly, and all His stones are hurl'd | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Against the wicked in another world. | 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.