881. Upon Julia's Hair Bundled Up in a Golden Net
Tell me, what needs those rich deceits,These golden toils, and trammel nets,To take thine hairs when they are knownAlready tame, and all thine own?'Tis I am wild, and more than hairsDeserve these meshes and those snares.Set free thy tresses, let them flowAs airs do breathe or winds do blow:And let such curious net-works beLess set for them than spread for me.
Words in this poem
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- trammel n.
- A kind of net for catching birds, fishes, or other prey. Carew. [F. tramail, trémail, a net, LL. tremaculum, tremacle, a kind of net for taking fish; L. tres three + macula a mesh. See Three, and Mail armor.]
- 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
881. Upon Julia's Hair Bundled Up in a Golden Net 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, 881. Upon Julia's Hair Bundled Up in a Golden Net, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/881-upon-julia-s-hair-bundled-up-in-a-golden-net.html, id L05805.
Form and metre
881. Upon Julia's Hair Bundled Up in a Golden Net is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 40% 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 --AABBCCDD deceits · nets · knownA · ownA · hairsB · snaresB · flowC · blowC · beD · meD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tell me, what needs those rich deceits, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| These golden toils, and trammel nets, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To take thine hairs when they are known | 8 | ········ |
| Already tame, and all thine own? | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| 'Tis I am wild, and more than hairs | 8 | ········ |
| Deserve these meshes and those snares. | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Set free thy tresses, let them flow | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As airs do breathe or winds do blow: | 8 | ········ |
| And let such curious net-works be | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Less set for them than spread for me. | 8 | ········ |
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.