90. His Cavalier
Give me that man that dares bestrideThe active sea-horse, and with prideThrough that huge field of waters ride.
Who with his looks, too, can appeaseThe ruffling winds and raging seas,In midst of all their outrages.
This, this a virtuous man can do,Sail against rocks, and split them too;Ay, and a world of pikes pass through.
Words in this poem
- bestride v. t.
- To stand or sit with anything between the legs, or with the legs astride; to stand over That horse that thou so often hast bestrid. [AS. bestridan; pref. be- + stridan to stride.]
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
90. His Cavalier 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, 90. His Cavalier, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/90-his-cavalier.html, id L05151.
Form and metre
90. His Cavalier is 9 lines in 3 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 AAA bestrideA · prideA · rideA
- 2 AAA appeaseA · seasA · outragesA
- 3 AAA doA · tooA · throughA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Give me that man that dares bestride | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The active sea-horse, and with pride | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Through that huge field of waters ride. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who with his looks, too, can appease | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The ruffling winds and raging seas, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| In midst of all their outrages. | 8 | ·····/·˘ |
| This, this a virtuous man can do, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Sail against rocks, and split them too; | 8 | ········ |
| Ay, and a world of pikes pass through. | 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.