9. Upon Julia's Recovery
Droop, droop no more, or hang the head,Ye roses almost withered;Now strength and newer purple get,Each here declining violet.O primroses! let this day beA resurrection unto ye;And to all flowers ally'd in blood,Or sworn to that sweet sisterhood:For health on Julia's cheek hath shedClaret and cream commingled;And those her lips do now appearAs beams of coral, but more clear.
Words in this poem
- resurrection n.
- A rising again; the resumption of vigor. [F. résurrection, L. resurrectio, fr. resurgere, resurrectum, to rise again; pref. re- re- + surgere to rise. See Source.]
- sisterhood n.
- The state or relation of being a sister; the office or duty of a sister. [Sister + hood.]
- claret n.
- The name firat given in England to the red wines of M [OE. claret, clare, clarry, OF. claret, clar, fr. cler, F. clair, clear, fr. L. clarus clear. See Clear.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
9. Upon Julia's Recovery 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, 9. Upon Julia's Recovery, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/9-upon-julia-s-recovery.html, id L05072.
Form and metre
9. Upon Julia's Recovery is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 83% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 AABBCCDDA-EE headA · witheredA · getB · violetB · beC · yeC · bloodD · sisterhoodD · shedA · commingled · appearE · clearE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Droop, droop no more, or hang the head, | 8 | ········ |
| Ye roses almost withered; | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘˘ |
| Now strength and newer purple get, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Each here declining violet. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| O primroses! let this day be | 8 | ·/·˘···· |
| A resurrection unto ye; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And to all flowers ally'd in blood, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Or sworn to that sweet sisterhood: | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| For health on Julia's cheek hath shed | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Claret and cream commingled; | 8 | /˘··˘/˘˘ |
| And those her lips do now appear | 8 | ······˘/ |
| As beams of coral, but more clear. | 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.