885. A Defence for Women
Naught are all women: I say no,Since for one bad, one good I know:For Clytemnestra most unkind,Loving Alcestis there we find:For one Medea that was bad,A good Penelope was had:For wanton Lais, then we haveChaste Lucrece, a wife as grave:And thus through womankind we seeA good and bad. Sirs, credit me.
Words in this poem
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- penelope n.
- A genus of curassows, including the guans.
- womankind n.
- The females of the human race; women, collectively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
885. A Defence for Women 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, 885. A Defence for Women, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/885-a-defence-for-women.html, id L05807.
Form and metre
885. A Defence for Women is 10 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 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 20% 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 AABBCCDDEE noA · knowA · unkindB · findB · badC · hadC · haveD · graveD · seeE · meE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Naught are all women: I say no, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Since for one bad, one good I know: | 8 | ········ |
| For Clytemnestra most unkind, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Loving Alcestis there we find: | 8 | /˘······ |
| For one Medea that was bad, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| A good Penelope was had: | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| For wanton Lais, then we have | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Chaste Lucrece, a wife as grave: | 7 | ······· |
| And thus through womankind we see | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| A good and bad. Sirs, credit 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.