755. Upon Slouch
Slouch he packs up, and goes to several fairs,And weekly markets for to sell his wares:Meantime that he from place to place does roam,His wife her own ware sells as fast at home.
Words in this poem
- slouch n.
- A hanging down of the head; a drooping attitude; a limp appearance; an ungainly, clownish gait; a sidewise depression or hanging down, as of a hat brim. [Cf. Icel. sla slouching felloew, and E. slack, slug, a lazy fellow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
755. Upon Slouch 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, 755. Upon Slouch, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/755-upon-slouch.html, id L06401.
Form and metre
755. Upon Slouch is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The lines average 10.0 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 fairsA · waresA · roamB · homeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Slouch he packs up, and goes to several fairs, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And weekly markets for to sell his wares: | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Meantime that he from place to place does roam, | 10 | /········· |
| His wife her own ware sells as fast at home. | 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.