77. To the King, upon His Coming with His Army into the West
Welcome, most welcome to our vows and us,Most great and universal genius!The drooping West, which hitherto has stoodAs one in long-lamented widowhood,Looks like a bride now, or a bed of flowersNewly refresh'd both by the sun and showers.War, which before was horrid, now appearsLovely in you, brave prince of cavaliers!A deal of courage in each bosom springsBy your access, O you the best of kings!Ride on with all white omens; so that whereYour standard's up, we fix a conquest there.
Words in this poem
- hitherto adv.
- To this place; to a prescribed limit.
- lamented a.
- Mourned for; bewailed.
- widowhood n.
- The state of being a widow; the time during which a woman is widow; also, rarely, the state of being a widower.
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
77. To the King, upon His Coming with His Army into the West 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, 77. To the King, upon His Coming with His Army into the West, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/77-to-the-king-upon-his-coming-with-his-army-into-the-west.html, id L05138.
Form and metre
77. To the King, upon His Coming with His Army into the West is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFF usA · geniusA · stoodB · widowhoodB · flowersC · showersC · appearsD · cavaliersD · springsE · kingsE · whereF · thereF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome, most welcome to our vows and us, | 10 | /˘·/˘·/··· |
| Most great and universal genius! | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| The drooping West, which hitherto has stood | 10 | ·/˘··/·/·· |
| As one in long-lamented widowhood, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Looks like a bride now, or a bed of flowers | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Newly refresh'd both by the sun and showers. | 11 | /˘˘/·····/˘ |
| War, which before was horrid, now appears | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Lovely in you, brave prince of cavaliers! | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| A deal of courage in each bosom springs | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| By your access, O you the best of kings! | 10 | ··/······· |
| Ride on with all white omens; so that where | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Your standard's up, we fix a conquest there. | 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.