86. To Dean Bourn, a Rude River in Devon, by Which Sometimes He Lived
Dean Bourn, farewell; I never look to seeDean, or thy watery incivility.Thy rocky bottom, that doth tear thy streamsAnd makes them frantic even to all extremes,To my content I never should behold,Were thy streams silver, or thy rocks all gold.Rocky thou art, and rocky we discoverThy men, and rocky are thy ways all over.O men, O manners, now and ever knownTo be a rocky generation!A people currish, churlish as the seas,And rude almost as rudest savages,With whom I did, and may re-sojourn whenRocks turn to rivers, rivers turn to men.
Words in this poem
- bourn n.
- A stream or rivulet; a burn. [OE. burne, borne, AS. burna; akin to OS. brunno spring, G. born, brunnen, OHG. prunno, Goth. brunna, Icel. brunnr, and perh. to Gr. burn, v., because the source]
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
- currish a.
- Having the qualities, or exhibiting the characteristics, of a cur; snarling; quarrelsome; snappish; churlish; hence, also malicious; malignant; brutal. [From Cur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
86. To Dean Bourn, a Rude River in Devon, by Which Sometimes He Lived 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, 86. To Dean Bourn, a Rude River in Devon, by Which Sometimes He Lived, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/86-to-dean-bourn-a-rude-river-in-devon-by-which-sometimes-he.html, id L05147.
Form and metre
86. To Dean Bourn, a Rude River in Devon, by Which Sometimes He Lived is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 --AABB--CCDDEE see · incivility · streamsA · extremesA · beholdB · goldB · discover · over · knownC · generationC · seasD · savagesD · whenE · menE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dean Bourn, farewell; I never look to see | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Dean, or thy watery incivility. | 11 | ···/˘˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| Thy rocky bottom, that doth tear thy streams | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And makes them frantic even to all extremes, | 10 | ···/˘/··˘/ |
| To my content I never should behold, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Were thy streams silver, or thy rocks all gold. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Rocky thou art, and rocky we discover | 11 | /˘···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Thy men, and rocky are thy ways all over. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| O men, O manners, now and ever known | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To be a rocky generation! | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| A people currish, churlish as the seas, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And rude almost as rudest savages, | 10 | ··/··/˘/˘˘ |
| With whom I did, and may re-sojourn when | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Rocks turn to rivers, rivers turn to men. | 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.