867. Out of Time, Out of Tune
We blame, nay, we despise her painsThat wets her garden when it rains:But when the drought has dried the knot,Then let her use the wat'ring-pot.We pray for showers, at our need,To drench, but not to drown our seed.
Words in this poem
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
867. Out of Time, Out of Tune 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, 867. Out of Time, Out of Tune, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/867-out-of-time-out-of-tune.html, id L05794.
Form and metre
867. Out of Time, Out of Tune is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables.
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 AABBCC painsA · rainsA · knotB · potB · needC · seedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We blame, nay, we despise her pains | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| That wets her garden when it rains: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But when the drought has dried the knot, | 8 | ········ |
| Then let her use the wat'ring-pot. | 8 | ········ |
| We pray for showers, at our need, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| To drench, but not to drown our seed. | 9 | ······/˘· |
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.