889. Another
Let the superstitious wifeNear the child's heart lay a knife:Point be up, and haft be down(While she gossips in the town);This, 'mongst other mystic charms,Keeps the sleeping child from harms.
Words in this poem
- haft n.
- A handle; that part of an instrument or vessel taken into the hand, and by which it is held and used; -- said chiefly of a knife, sword, or dagger; the hilt. [AS. hæft; akin to D. & G. heft, Icel. hepti, and to E. Heave, or have. Cf. Heft.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
889. Another 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, 889. Another, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/889-another.html, id L05810.
Form and metre
889. Another is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 wifeA · knifeA · downB · townB · charmsC · harmsC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Let the superstitious wife | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Near the child's heart lay a knife: | 7 | ······· |
| Point be up, and haft be down | 7 | ······· |
| (While she gossips in the town); | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| This, 'mongst other mystic charms, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Keeps the sleeping child from harms. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.