961. Upon Ralph
Ralph pares his nails, his warts, his corns, and RalphIn sev'rall tills and boxes, keeps 'em safe;Instead of hartshorn, if he speaks the troth,To make a lusty-jelly for his broth.
Words in this poem
- ralph n.
- A name sometimes given to the raven.
- hartshorn n.
- The horn or antler of the hart, or male red deer.
- troth n.
- Belief; faith; fidelity. [A variant of truth. See Truth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
961. Upon Ralph 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. Upon Ralph, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/961-upon-ralph.html, id L06428.
Form and metre
961. Upon Ralph is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 ralph · safe · trothA · brothA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ralph pares his nails, his warts, his corns, and Ralph | 10 | ·········· |
| In sev'rall tills and boxes, keeps 'em safe; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Instead of hartshorn, if he speaks the troth, | 10 | ˘/·/······ |
| To make a lusty-jelly for his broth. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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.