79. To the King and Queen upon Their Unhappy Distances
Woe, woe to them, who, by a ball of strife,Do, and have parted here a man and wife:CHARLES the best husband, while MARIA strivesTo be, and is, the very best of wives,Like streams, you are divorc'd; but 'twill come whenThese eyes of mine shall see you mix again.Thus speaks the oak here; C. and M. shall meet,Treading on amber, with their silver-feet,Nor will't be long ere this accomplish'd be:The words found true, C. M., remember me.
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
79. To the King and Queen upon Their Unhappy Distances 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, 79. To the King and Queen upon Their Unhappy Distances, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/79-to-the-king-and-queen-upon-their-unhappy-distances.html, id L05140.
Form and metre
79. To the King and Queen upon Their Unhappy Distances is 10 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%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 20% 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 AABBCCDDEE strifeA · wifeA · strivesB · wivesB · whenC · againC · meetD · feetD · beE · meE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Woe, woe to them, who, by a ball of strife, | 10 | ·········· |
| Do, and have parted here a man and wife: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| CHARLES the best husband, while MARIA strives | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| To be, and is, the very best of wives, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Like streams, you are divorc'd; but 'twill come when | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| These eyes of mine shall see you mix again. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Thus speaks the oak here; C. and M. shall meet, | 10 | ·········· |
| Treading on amber, with their silver-feet, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Nor will't be long ere this accomplish'd be: | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The words found true, C. M., remember me. | 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.