956. To His Worthy Friend, M. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn
Tell me, young man, or did the Muses bringThee less to taste than to drink up their spring,That none hereafter should be thought, or beA poet, or a poet-like but thee?What was thy birth, thy star that makes thee known,At twice ten years, a prime and public one?Tell us thy nation, kindred, or the whenceThou had'st and hast thy mighty influence,That makes thee lov'd, and of the men desir'd,And no less prais'd than of the maids admired.Put on thy laurel then; and in that trimBe thou Apollo or the type of him:Or let the unshorn god lend thee his lyre,And next to him be master of the choir.
Words in this poem
- hereafter adv.
- In time to come; in some future time or state. [AS. hræfter.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- admired a.
- Regarded with wonder and delight; highly prized; as, an admired poem.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
956. To His Worthy Friend, M. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn 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, 956. To His Worthy Friend, M. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/956-to-his-worthy-friend-m-john-hall-student-of-gray-s-inn.html, id L05871.
Form and metre
956. To His Worthy Friend, M. John Hall, Student of Gray's Inn is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABB--CCDDEE-- bringA · springA · beB · theeB · known · one · whenceC · influenceC · desir'dD · admiredD · trimE · himE · lyre · choir
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tell me, young man, or did the Muses bring | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thee less to taste than to drink up their spring, | 10 | ·········· |
| That none hereafter should be thought, or be | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| A poet, or a poet-like but thee? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| What was thy birth, thy star that makes thee known, | 10 | ·········· |
| At twice ten years, a prime and public one? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Tell us thy nation, kindred, or the whence | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Thou had'st and hast thy mighty influence, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| That makes thee lov'd, and of the men desir'd, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| And no less prais'd than of the maids admired. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Put on thy laurel then; and in that trim | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Be thou Apollo or the type of him: | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Or let the unshorn god lend thee his lyre, | 10 | ·········· |
| And next to him be master of the choir. | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
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.