744. Delay
Break off delay, since we but read of oneThat ever prospered by cunctation.
Cunctation, delay: the word is suggested by the name of FabiusCunctator, the conqueror of the Carthaginians, addressed by Virg.(Æn. vi. 846) as "Unus qui nobis cunctando restituis rem".
Words in this poem
- cunctation n.
- Delay; procrastination. Carlyle. [L. cunctatio, fr. cunctari, p.p. cunctatus, to delay.]
- cunctator n.
- One who delays or lingers. [L., lit., a delayer; -- applied as a surname to Q. Fabius Maximus.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
744. Delay 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, 744. Delay, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/744-delay.html, id L05686.
Form and metre
744. Delay is 5 lines in 2 stanzas. The lines average 13.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Break off delay, since we but read of one | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| That ever prospered by cunctation. | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| Cunctation, delay: the word is suggested by the name of Fabius | 17 | ˘/˘˘/···˘/˘······ |
| Cunctator, the conqueror of the Carthaginians, addressed by Virg. | 16 | ˘/˘·/˘···˘/˘˘/·· |
| (Æn. vi. 846) as "Unus qui nobis cunctando restituis rem". | 15 | ······/˘······· |
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.