915. Upon Himself
I lately fri'd, but now beholdI freeze as fast, and shake for cold.And in good faith I'd thought it strangeT' have found in me this sudden change;But that I understood by dreamsThese only were but Love's extremes;Who fires with hope the lover's heart,And starves with cold the self-same part.
About this text
915. Upon Himself 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, 915. Upon Himself, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/915-upon-himself.html, id L05833.
Form and metre
915. Upon Himself is 8 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 96%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 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 AABBCCDD beholdA · coldA · strangeB · changeB · dreamsC · extremesC · heartD · partD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I lately fri'd, but now behold | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| I freeze as fast, and shake for cold. | 8 | ········ |
| And in good faith I'd thought it strange | 8 | ········ |
| T' have found in me this sudden change; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| But that I understood by dreams | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| These only were but Love's extremes; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Who fires with hope the lover's heart, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| And starves with cold the self-same part. | 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.