961. To the King, upon His Welcome to Hampton Court. Set and Sung
Welcome, great Cæsar, welcome now you areAs dearest peace after destructive war:Welcome as slumbers, or as beds of easeAfter our long and peevish sicknesses.O pomp of glory! Welcome now, and comeTo repossess once more your long'd-for home.A thousand altars smoke: a thousand thighsOf beeves here ready stand for sacrifice.Enter and prosper; while our eyes do waitFor an ascendent throughly auspicate:Under which sign we may the former stoneLay of our safety's new foundation:That done, O Cæsar! live and be to usOur fate, our fortune, and our genius;To whose free knees we may our temples tieAs to a still protecting deity:That should you stir, we and our altars tooMay, great Augustus, go along with you.Chor. Long live the King! and to accomplish this,We'll from our own add far more years to his.
And as time past when Cato the severeEnter'd the circumspacious theatre,In reverence of his person everyoneStood as he had been turn'd from flesh to stone;E'en so my numbers will astonished beIf but looked on; struck dead, if scann'd by thee.
Words in this poem
- repossess v. t.
- To possess again; as, to repossess the land. Pope. To repossess one's self of (something), to acquire again (something lost).
- beeves n.
- ; plural of Beef, the animal.
- prosper v. t.
- To favor; to render successful. [F. prospérer v. i., or L. prosperare, v. i., or L. prosperare, v. t., fr. prosper or prosperus. See Prosperous.]
- ascendent a.
- Rising toward the zenith; above the horizon.
- auspicate a.
- Auspicious. Holland. [L. auspicatus, p. p. of auspicari to take auspices, fr. auspex a bird seer, an augur, a contr. of avispex; avis bird + specere, spicere, to view. See Aviary, Sp]
- theatre n.
- An edifice in which dramatic performances or spectacles are exhibited for the amusement of spectators; anciently uncovered, except the stage, but in modern times roofed. [F. thé\'83tre, L. theatrum, Gr. dhya to meditate, think. Cf. Theory.]
- everyone n.
- Everybody; -- commonly separated, every one. [OE. everychon.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
961. To the King, upon His Welcome to Hampton Court. Set and Sung 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, 961. To the King, upon His Welcome to Hampton Court. Set and Sung, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/961-to-the-king-upon-his-welcome-to-hampton-court-set-and-su.html, id L05875.
Form and metre
961. To the King, upon His Welcome to Hampton Court. Set and Sung is 26 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 54% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% 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 --AABBA-CCDDEE--FF-- are · war · easeA · sicknessesA · comeB · homeB · thighsA · sacrifice · waitC · auspicateC · stoneD · foundationD · usE · geniusE · tie · deity · tooF · youF · this · his
- 2 ----AA severe · theatre · everyone · stone · beA · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome, great Cæsar, welcome now you are | 9 | /˘··/˘··· |
| As dearest peace after destructive war: | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Welcome as slumbers, or as beds of ease | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| After our long and peevish sicknesses. | 11 | ··/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| O pomp of glory! Welcome now, and come | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To repossess once more your long'd-for home. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| A thousand altars smoke: a thousand thighs | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of beeves here ready stand for sacrifice. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Enter and prosper; while our eyes do wait | 10 | /˘·/˘·/··· |
| For an ascendent throughly auspicate: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Under which sign we may the former stone | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Lay of our safety's new foundation: | 10 | ··/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| That done, O Cæsar! live and be to us | 9 | ········· |
| Our fate, our fortune, and our genius; | 11 | /·/˘/˘·/˘/˘ |
| To whose free knees we may our temples tie | 10 | ······//˘· |
| As to a still protecting deity: | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| That should you stir, we and our altars too | 10 | ······//˘· |
| May, great Augustus, go along with you. | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Chor. Long live the King! and to accomplish this, | 11 | ·······˘/˘· |
| We'll from our own add far more years to his. | 10 | ··/······· |
| And as time past when Cato the severe | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Enter'd the circumspacious theatre, | 10 | /˘·····/˘˘ |
| In reverence of his person everyone | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Stood as he had been turn'd from flesh to stone; | 10 | ·········· |
| E'en so my numbers will astonished be | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| If but looked on; struck dead, if scann'd by thee. | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 1
Word-glosses from Pollard's edition (Muses' Library, 1891; Project Gutenberg #22421).
- Stanza 1 Ascendent: the most influential position of a planet in astrology · Auspicate: propitious
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