851. To M. Henry Lawes, the Excellent Composer of His Lyrics
Touch but thy lyre, my Harry, and I hearFrom thee some raptures of the rare Gotiere;Then if thy voice commingle with the string,I hear in thee rare Laniere to sing;Or curious Wilson: tell me, canst thou beLess than Apollo, that usurp'st such three?Three, unto whom the whole world give applause;Yet their three praises praise but one; that's Lawes.
Words in this poem
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
- commingle v. t.
- To mingle together; to mix in one mass, or intimately; to blend.
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
851. To M. Henry Lawes, the Excellent Composer of His Lyrics 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, 851. To M. Henry Lawes, the Excellent Composer of His Lyrics, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/851-to-m-henry-lawes-the-excellent-composer-of-his-lyrics.html, id L05778.
Form and metre
851. To M. Henry Lawes, the Excellent Composer of His Lyrics is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDD hearA · gotiereA · stringB · singB · beC · threeC · applauseD · lawesD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Touch but thy lyre, my Harry, and I hear | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From thee some raptures of the rare Gotiere; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Then if thy voice commingle with the string, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| I hear in thee rare Laniere to sing; | 9 | ········· |
| Or curious Wilson: tell me, canst thou be | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Less than Apollo, that usurp'st such three? | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Three, unto whom the whole world give applause; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Yet their three praises praise but one; that's Lawes. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Gotiere: Wilson, see above, 111 · Laniere: Nicholas Laniere (1590?-1670?), musician and painter,
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