Hester
When maidens such as Hester dieTheir place ye may not well supply,Though ye among a thousand tryWith vain endeavour.
A month or more hath she been dead,Yet cannot I by force be ledTo think upon the wormy bedAnd her together.
A springy motion in her gait,A rising step, did indicateOf pride and joy no common rate,That flush’d her spirit:
I know not by what name besideI shall it call: if ’twas not pride,It was a joy to that allied,She did inherit.
Her parents held the Quaker rule,Which doth the human feeling cool;But she was train’d in Nature’s school;Nature had blest her.
A waking eye, a prying mind;A heart that stirs, is hard to bind;A hawk’s keen sight ye cannot blind;Ye could not Hester.
My sprightly neighbour! gone beforeTo that unknown and silent shore,Shall we not meet, as heretofore,Some summer morning--
When from thy cheerful eyes a rayHath struck a bliss upon the day,A bliss that would not go away,A sweet forewarning?
Words in this poem
- endeavour v. t.
- To exert physical or intellectual strength for the attainment of; to use efforts to effect; to strive to achieve or reach; to try; to attempt. [OE. endevor; pref. en- + dever, devoir, duty, F. devoir: cf. F. se mettre en devoir de faire quelque chose to try to do a thing, to go about it. See Devoir, Deb]
- wormy a.
- Containing a worm; abounding with worms.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- quaker n.
- One who quakes.
- prying a.
- Inspecting closely or impertinently.
- neighbour v. i.
- To dwell in the vicinity; to be a neighbor, or in the neighborhood; to be near.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hester is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles Lamb, Hester, in Poems (1775–1834), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-charles-lamb/hester.html, id L16177.
Form and metre
Hester is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 56% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 AAA- dieA · supplyA · tryA · endeavour
- 2 AAA- deadA · ledA · bedA · together
- 3 AAAA gaitA · indicateA · rateA · spiritA
- 4 AAA- besideA · prideA · alliedA · inherit
- 5 AAA- ruleA · coolA · schoolA · her
- 6 AAA- mindA · bindA · blindA · hester
- 7 AAA- beforeA · shoreA · heretoforeA · morning
- 8 AAA- rayA · dayA · awayA · forewarning
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When maidens such as Hester die | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Their place ye may not well supply, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Though ye among a thousand try | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With vain endeavour. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| A month or more hath she been dead, | 8 | ········ |
| Yet cannot I by force be led | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To think upon the wormy bed | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And her together. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| A springy motion in her gait, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A rising step, did indicate | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of pride and joy no common rate, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That flush’d her spirit: | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I know not by what name beside | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I shall it call: if ’twas not pride, | 8 | ········ |
| It was a joy to that allied, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| She did inherit. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Her parents held the Quaker rule, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Which doth the human feeling cool; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But she was train’d in Nature’s school; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nature had blest her. | 5 | /˘··· |
| A waking eye, a prying mind; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A heart that stirs, is hard to bind; | 8 | ········ |
| A hawk’s keen sight ye cannot blind; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ye could not Hester. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| My sprightly neighbour! gone before | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To that unknown and silent shore, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Shall we not meet, as heretofore, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Some summer morning-- | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| When from thy cheerful eyes a ray | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Hath struck a bliss upon the day, | 8 | ········ |
| A bliss that would not go away, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A sweet forewarning? | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
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.