83. The Dirge of Jephthah's Daughter: Sung by the Virgins
O thou, the wonder of all days!O paragon, and pearl of praise!O virgin-martyr, ever blestAbove the restOf all the maiden train! We come,And bring fresh strewings to thy tomb.
Thus, thus, and thus we compass roundThy harmless and unhaunted ground;And as we sing thy dirge, we willThe daffodilAnd other flowers lay uponThe altar of our love, thy stone.
Thou wonder of all maids, liest here.Of daughters all the dearest dear;The eye of virgins; nay, the queenOf this smooth green,And all sweet meads; from whence we getThe primrose and the violet.
Too soon, too dear did Jephthah buy,By thy sad loss, our liberty:His was the bond and cov'nant, yetThou paid'st the debt:Lamented maid! he won the day,But for the conquest thou didst pay.
Thy father brought with him alongThe olive branch and victor's song:He slew the Ammonites, we know,But to thy woe;And in the purchase of our peace,The cure was worse than the disease.
For which obedient zeal of thine,We offer here, before thy shrine,Our sighs for storax, tears for wine;And to make fineAnd fresh thy hearse-cloth, we will, here,Four times bestrew thee ev'ry year.
Receive, for this thy praise, our tears:Receive this offering of our hairs:Receive these crystal vials fill'dWith tears distill'dFrom teeming eyes; to these we bring,Each maid, her silver filleting,
To gild thy tomb; besides, these cauls,These laces, ribbons, and these falls,These veils, wherewith we use to hideThe bashful bride,When we conduct her to her groom:And all we lay upon thy tomb.
No more, no more, since thou art dead,Shall we e'er bring coy brides to bed;No more, at yearly festivalsWe cowslip ballsOr chains of columbines shall makeFor this or that occasion's sake.
No, no; our maiden pleasures beWrapp'd in the winding-sheet with thee:'Tis we are dead, though not i' th' grave:Or, if we haveOne seed of life left, 'tis to keepA Lent for thee, to fast and weep.
Sleep in thy peace, thy bed of spice,And make this place all paradise:May sweets grow here: and smoke from henceFat frankincense:Let balm and cassia send their scentFrom out thy maiden-monument.
May no wolf howl, or screech-owl stirA wing about thy sepulchre!No boisterous winds, or storms, come hitherTo starve or witherThy soft sweet earth! but, like a spring,Love keep it ever flourishing.
May all shy maids, at wonted hours,Come forth to strew thy tomb with flow'rs:May virgins, when they come to mourn,Male-incense burnUpon thine altar! then return,And leave thee sleeping in thy urn.
Words in this poem 15
- paragon n.
- A companion; a match; an equal.
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- lamented a.
- Mourned for; bewailed.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- bestrew v. t.
- To strew or scatter over; to besprinkle. [Spelt also bestrow.]
- teeming a.
- Prolific; productive.
- filleting n.
- The protecting of a joint, as between roof and parapet wall, with mortar, or cement, where flashing is employed in better work.
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- bashful a.
- Abashed; daunted; dismayed. [See Bash.]
- 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,]
- cowslip n.
- A common flower in England (Primula veris) having yellow blossoms and appearing in early spring. It is often cultivated in the United States. [AS. c, c, prob. orig., cow's droppings. Cf. Slop, n.]
- cassia n.
- A genus of leguminous plants (herbs, shrubs, or trees) of many species, most of which have purgative qualities. The leaves of several species furnish the senna used in medicine. [L. cassia and casia, Gr. qetsi\'beh, fr. qatsa' to cut off, to peel off.]
- sepulchre n.
- The place in which the dead body of a human being is interred, or a place set apart for that purpose; a grave; a tomb. [OE. sepulcre, OF. sepulcre, F. sépulcre, fr. L. sepulcrum, sepulchrum, fr. sepelire to bury.]
- boisterous a.
- Rough or rude; unbending; unyielding; strong; powerful. [OE. boistous; of uncertain origin; cf. W. bwyst wild, savage, wildness, ferocity, bwystus ferocious.]
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
83. The Dirge of Jephthah's Daughter: Sung by the Virgins 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, 83. The Dirge of Jephthah's Daughter: Sung by the Virgins, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/83-the-dirge-of-jephthah-s-daughter-sung-by-the-virgins.html, id L06094.
Form and metre
83. The Dirge of Jephthah's Daughter: Sung by the Virgins is 78 lines in 13 stanzas of 6 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 79% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB-- daysA · praiseA · blestB · restB · come · tomb
- 2 AABB-- roundA · groundA · willB · daffodilB · upon · stone
- 3 AABBCC hereA · dearA · queenB · greenB · getC · violetC
- 4 --AABB buy · liberty · yetA · debtA · dayB · payB
- 5 AABB-- alongA · songA · knowB · woeB · peace · disease
- 6 AAAABB thineA · shrineA · wineA · fineA · hereB · yearB
- 7 AABBCC tearsA · hairsA · fill'dB · distill'dB · bringC · filletingC
- 8 --AABB cauls · falls · hideA · brideA · groomB · tombB
- 9 AABBCC deadA · bedA · festivalsB · ballsB · makeC · sakeC
- 10 AABBCC beA · theeA · graveB · haveB · keepC · weepC
- 11 AABBCC spiceA · paradiseA · henceB · frankincenseB · scentC · monumentC
- 12 --AABB stir · sepulchre · hitherA · witherA · springB · flourishingB
- 13 ---AAA hours · flow'rs · mourn · burnA · returnA · urnA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O thou, the wonder of all days! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O paragon, and pearl of praise! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| O virgin-martyr, ever blest | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Above the rest | 4 | ···· |
| Of all the maiden train! We come, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And bring fresh strewings to thy tomb. | 8 | ········ |
| Thus, thus, and thus we compass round | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy harmless and unhaunted ground; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And as we sing thy dirge, we will | 8 | ········ |
| The daffodil | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And other flowers lay upon | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The altar of our love, thy stone. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Thou wonder of all maids, liest here. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of daughters all the dearest dear; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The eye of virgins; nay, the queen | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of this smooth green, | 4 | ···· |
| And all sweet meads; from whence we get | 8 | ········ |
| The primrose and the violet. | 8 | ·/···/˘˘ |
| Too soon, too dear did Jephthah buy, | 8 | ········ |
| By thy sad loss, our liberty: | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| His was the bond and cov'nant, yet | 8 | ········ |
| Thou paid'st the debt: | 4 | ···· |
| Lamented maid! he won the day, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| But for the conquest thou didst pay. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy father brought with him along | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The olive branch and victor's song: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| He slew the Ammonites, we know, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But to thy woe; | 4 | ···· |
| And in the purchase of our peace, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| The cure was worse than the disease. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For which obedient zeal of thine, | 9 | ··˘/˘˘··· |
| We offer here, before thy shrine, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Our sighs for storax, tears for wine; | 9 | /˘··/˘··· |
| And to make fine | 4 | ···· |
| And fresh thy hearse-cloth, we will, here, | 8 | ········ |
| Four times bestrew thee ev'ry year. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Receive, for this thy praise, our tears: | 9 | ˘/····/˘· |
| Receive this offering of our hairs: | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Receive these crystal vials fill'd | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| With tears distill'd | 4 | ··˘/ |
| From teeming eyes; to these we bring, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Each maid, her silver filleting, | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| To gild thy tomb; besides, these cauls, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| These laces, ribbons, and these falls, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| These veils, wherewith we use to hide | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The bashful bride, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| When we conduct her to her groom: | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And all we lay upon thy tomb. | 8 | ········ |
| No more, no more, since thou art dead, | 8 | ········ |
| Shall we e'er bring coy brides to bed; | 8 | ········ |
| No more, at yearly festivals | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| We cowslip balls | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Or chains of columbines shall make | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For this or that occasion's sake. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| No, no; our maiden pleasures be | 9 | ··/˘/˘/˘· |
| Wrapp'd in the winding-sheet with thee: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| 'Tis we are dead, though not i' th' grave: | 8 | ········ |
| Or, if we have | 4 | ···· |
| One seed of life left, 'tis to keep | 8 | ········ |
| A Lent for thee, to fast and weep. | 8 | ········ |
| Sleep in thy peace, thy bed of spice, | 8 | ········ |
| And make this place all paradise: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| May sweets grow here: and smoke from hence | 8 | ········ |
| Fat frankincense: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Let balm and cassia send their scent | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| From out thy maiden-monument. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| May no wolf howl, or screech-owl stir | 8 | ········ |
| A wing about thy sepulchre! | 7 | ······· |
| No boisterous winds, or storms, come hither | 10 | ·/˘˘····/˘ |
| To starve or wither | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Thy soft sweet earth! but, like a spring, | 8 | ········ |
| Love keep it ever flourishing. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| May all shy maids, at wonted hours, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Come forth to strew thy tomb with flow'rs: | 8 | ········ |
| May virgins, when they come to mourn, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Male-incense burn | 4 | ·˘/· |
| Upon thine altar! then return, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And leave thee sleeping in thy urn. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Stanza 13 Cauls: nets for the hair · Falls: trimmings hanging loosely · Male-incense: incense in globular drops
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