820. Suffer That Thou Canst Not Shift
Does fortune rend thee? Bear with thy hard fate:Virtuous instructions ne'er are delicate.Say, does she frown? still countermand her threats:Virtue best loves those children that she beats.
Words in this poem
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
- countermand v. t.
- To revoke (a former command); to cancel or rescind by giving an order contrary to one previously given; as, to countermand an order for goods. [F. contremander; contre (L. contra) + mander to command, fr. L. mandare. Cf. Mandate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
820. Suffer That Thou Canst Not Shift 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, 820. Suffer That Thou Canst Not Shift, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/820-suffer-that-thou-canst-not-shift.html, id L05754.
Form and metre
820. Suffer That Thou Canst Not Shift is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 AA-- fateA · delicateA · threats · beats
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Does fortune rend thee? Bear with thy hard fate: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Virtuous instructions ne'er are delicate. | 11 | /˘˘˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Say, does she frown? still countermand her threats: | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Virtue best loves those children that she beats. | 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.