Noble Numbers
"Every night Thou dost me fright,And keep mine eyes from sleeping," etc.
We'll choose him King. A reference to the Twelfth Night games. SeeHesperides 1035, and Note.
God had but one son free from sin. Augustin. Confess. vi.:Deus unicum habet filium sine peccato, nullum sine flagello, quoted inBurton, II. iii. 1.
Paradise. Gregory, p. 75, on "the reverend Say of Zoroaster, SeekParadise," quotes from the Scholiast Psellus: "The Chaldæan Paradise(saith he) is a Quire of divine powers incircling the Father".
Words in this poem
- reverend a.
- Worthy of reverence; entitled to respect mingled with fear and affection; venerable. [F. révérend, L. reverendus, fr. revereri. See Revere.]
- scholiast n.
- A maker of scholia; a commentator or annotator. [Gr. scoliate. See Scholium.]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- quire v. i.
- To sing in concert.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Noble Numbers 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, Noble Numbers, in Hesperides (1648), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22421, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herrick-hesperides/noble-numbers.html, id L06286.
Form and metre
Noble Numbers is 10 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Every night Thou dost me fright, | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| And keep mine eyes from sleeping," etc. | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘˘ |
| We'll choose him King. A reference to the Twelfth Night games. See | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Hesperides 1035, and Note. | 6 | ˘/˘˘·· |
| God had but one son free from sin. Augustin. Confess. vi.: | 13 | ········˘/˘/· |
| Deus unicum habet filium sine peccato, nullum sine flagello, quoted in | 21 | ··················/˘· |
| Burton, II. iii. 1. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Paradise. Gregory, p. 75, on "the reverend Say of Zoroaster, Seek | 16 | /˘·/˘···/˘······ |
| Paradise," quotes from the Scholiast Psellus: "The Chaldæan Paradise | 17 | /˘····/˘˘·····/˘· |
| (saith he) is a Quire of divine powers incircling the Father". | 15 | ······˘//····/˘ |
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.