912. Upon a Virgin
Spend, harmless shade, thy nightly hoursSelecting here both herbs and flowers;Of which make garlands here and thereTo dress thy silent sepulchre.Nor do thou fear the want of theseIn everlasting properties,Since we fresh strewings will bring hither,Far faster than the first can wither.
Words in this poem
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- sepulchre n.
- The place in which the dead body of a human being is interred, or a place set apart for that purpose; a grave; a tomb. [OE. sepulcre, OF. sepulcre, F. sépulcre, fr. L. sepulcrum, sepulchrum, fr. sepelire to bury.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
912. Upon a Virgin 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, 912. Upon a Virgin, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/912-upon-a-virgin.html, id L05830.
Form and metre
912. Upon a Virgin is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 AA--AABB hoursA · flowersA · there · sepulchre · theseA · propertiesA · hitherB · witherB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Spend, harmless shade, thy nightly hours | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Selecting here both herbs and flowers; | 9 | ˘/˘····/˘ |
| Of which make garlands here and there | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To dress thy silent sepulchre. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Nor do thou fear the want of these | 8 | ········ |
| In everlasting properties, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Since we fresh strewings will bring hither, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Far faster than the first can wither. | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
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.