819. The Transfiguration
Immortal clothing I put onSo soon as, Julia, I am goneTo mine eternal mansion.Thou, thou art here, to human sightCloth'd all with incorrupted light;But yet how more admir'dly brightWilt thou appear, when thou art setIn thy refulgent thronelet,That shin'st thus in thy counterfeit!
Words in this poem
- mansion n.
- A dwelling place, -- whether a part or whole of a house or other shelter. [OF. mansion, F. maison, fr. L. mansio a staying, remaining, a dwelling, habitation, fr. manere, mansum, to stay, dwell; akin to Gr. Manse, Manor, Menagerie, Men]
- refulgent a.
- Casting a bright light; radiant; brilliant; resplendent; shining; splendid; as, refulgent beams. [L. refulgens, p. pr. of refulgere to flash back, to shine bright; pref. re- re- + fulgere to shine. See Fulgent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
819. The Transfiguration 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, 819. The Transfiguration, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/819-the-transfiguration.html, id L05753.
Form and metre
819. The Transfiguration is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AAABBB--- onA · goneA · mansionA · sightB · lightB · brightB · set · thronelet · counterfeit
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Immortal clothing I put on | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| So soon as, Julia, I am gone | 8 | ········ |
| To mine eternal mansion. | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| Thou, thou art here, to human sight | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Cloth'd all with incorrupted light; | 8 | ···/˘˘˘· |
| But yet how more admir'dly bright | 8 | ········ |
| Wilt thou appear, when thou art set | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| In thy refulgent thronelet, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| That shin'st thus in thy counterfeit! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.