824. To Julia, in Her Dawn, or Daybreak
By the next kindling of the day,My Julia, thou shalt see,Ere Ave-Mary thou canst sayI'll come and visit thee.
Yet ere thou counsel'st with thy glass,Appear thou to mine eyesAs smooth, and nak'd, as she that wasThe prime of paradise.
If blush thou must, then blush thou throughA lawn, that thou mayst lookAs purest pearls, or pebbles doWhen peeping through a brook.
As lilies shrin'd in crystal, soDo thou to me appear;Or damask roses when they growTo sweet acquaintance there.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
824. To Julia, in Her Dawn, or Daybreak 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, 824. To Julia, in Her Dawn, or Daybreak, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/824-to-julia-in-her-dawn-or-daybreak.html, id L05757.
Form and metre
824. To Julia, in Her Dawn, or Daybreak is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB dayA · seeB · sayA · theeB
- 3 ABAB throughA · lookB · doA · brookB
- 4 ABAB soA · appearB · growA · thereB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| By the next kindling of the day, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My Julia, thou shalt see, | 6 | ······ |
| Ere Ave-Mary thou canst say | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| I'll come and visit thee. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet ere thou counsel'st with thy glass, | 8 | ········ |
| Appear thou to mine eyes | 6 | ˘/···· |
| As smooth, and nak'd, as she that was | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The prime of paradise. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If blush thou must, then blush thou through | 8 | ········ |
| A lawn, that thou mayst look | 6 | ······ |
| As purest pearls, or pebbles do | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When peeping through a brook. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As lilies shrin'd in crystal, so | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Do thou to me appear; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Or damask roses when they grow | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To sweet acquaintance there. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
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.