Virtue
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright!The bridal of the earth and sky--The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;For thou must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue angry and braveBids the rash gazer wipe his eye,Thy root is ever in its grave,And thou must die.
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,A box where sweets compacted lie,My music shows ye have your closes,And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,Like season’d timber, never gives;But though the whole world turn to coal,Then chiefly lives.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Virtue 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, Virtue, in Poems (1593–1632), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-george-herbert/virtue.html, id L16063.
Form and metre
Virtue is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% 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 brightA · skyB · nightA · dieB
- 2 ABAB braveA · eyeB · graveA · dieB
- 3 ABAB rosesA · lieB · closesA · dieB
- 4 ABAB soulA · givesB · coalA · livesB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright! | 8 | ········ |
| The bridal of the earth and sky-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The dew shall weep thy fall to-night; | 8 | ········ |
| For thou must die. | 4 | ···· |
| Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy root is ever in its grave, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thou must die. | 4 | ···· |
| Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| A box where sweets compacted lie, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| My music shows ye have your closes, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| And all must die. | 4 | ···· |
| Only a sweet and virtuous soul, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Like season’d timber, never gives; | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| But though the whole world turn to coal, | 8 | ········ |
| Then chiefly lives. | 4 | ·/˘· |
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.