85. Upon Love
Love scorch'd my finger, but did spareThe burning of my heart;To signify in love my shareShould be a little part.
Little I love; but if that heWould but that heat recall;That joint to ashes burnt should be,Ere I would love at all.
About this text
85. Upon Love 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, 85. Upon Love, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/85-upon-love.html, id L05146.
Form and metre
85. Upon Love is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 38% 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 spareA · heartB · shareA · partB
- 2 ABAB heA · recallB · beA · allB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love scorch'd my finger, but did spare | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The burning of my heart; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To signify in love my share | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Should be a little part. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Little I love; but if that he | 8 | /˘······ |
| Would but that heat recall; | 6 | ····/· |
| That joint to ashes burnt should be, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ere I would love at all. | 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.