Easter
I got me flowers to straw Thy way,I got me boughs off many a tree;But Thou wast up by break of day,And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee.
Yet though my flowers be lost, they sayA heart can never come too late;Teach it to sing Thy praise this day.And then this day my life shall date.
Words in this poem
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Easter 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: George Herbert, Easter, in Poems (1593–1632), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-george-herbert/easter.html, id L16064.
Form and metre
Easter is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 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 8.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABAB wayA · treeB · dayA · theeB
- 2 ABAB sayA · lateB · dayA · dateB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I got me flowers to straw Thy way, | 8 | ···/···· |
| I got me boughs off many a tree; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| But Thou wast up by break of day, | 8 | ········ |
| And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Yet though my flowers be lost, they say | 8 | ···/···· |
| A heart can never come too late; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Teach it to sing Thy praise this day. | 8 | ········ |
| And then this day my life shall date. | 8 | ········ |
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.