804. To His Faithful Friend, M. John Crofts, Cup-Bearer to the King
For all thy many courtesies to me,Nothing I have, my Crofts, to send to theeFor the requital, save this only oneHalf of my just remuneration.For since I've travell'd all this realm throughoutTo seek and find some few immortals outTo circumspangle this my spacious sphere,As lamps for everlasting shining here;And having fix'd thee in mine orb a star,Amongst the rest, both bright and singular,The present age will tell the world thou art,If not to th' whole, yet satisfi'd in part.As for the rest, being too great a sumHere to be paid, I'll pay't i' th' world to come.
Words in this poem
- amongst prep.
- Mixed or mingled; surrounded by. [OE. amongist, amonges, amonge, among, AS. onmang, ongemang, gemang, in a crowd or mixture. For the ending -st see Amidst. See Mingle.]
- singular a.
- Separate or apart from others; single; distinct. [OE. singuler, F. singulier, fr. L. singularius, singularis, fr. singulus single. See Single, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
804. To His Faithful Friend, M. John Crofts, Cup-Bearer to the King 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, 804. To His Faithful Friend, M. John Crofts, Cup-Bearer to the King, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/804-to-his-faithful-friend-m-john-crofts-cup-bearer-to-the-k.html, id L05739.
Form and metre
804. To His Faithful Friend, M. John Crofts, Cup-Bearer to the King is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 86% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 AABBCCDD--EEFF meA · theeA · oneB · remunerationB · throughoutC · outC · sphereD · hereD · star · singular · artE · partE · sumF · comeF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| For all thy many courtesies to me, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Nothing I have, my Crofts, to send to thee | 10 | /˘········ |
| For the requital, save this only one | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Half of my just remuneration. | 9 | ····˘·˘/˘ |
| For since I've travell'd all this realm throughout | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To seek and find some few immortals out | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| To circumspangle this my spacious sphere, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As lamps for everlasting shining here; | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| And having fix'd thee in mine orb a star, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Amongst the rest, both bright and singular, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| The present age will tell the world thou art, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| If not to th' whole, yet satisfi'd in part. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As for the rest, being too great a sum | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Here to be paid, I'll pay't i' th' world to come. | 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.