Analysis of An ode of the birth of our saviour
Robert Herrick 1591 (London) – 1674 (Dean Prior)
In numbers, and but these few,
I sing thy birth, oh JESU!
Thou pretty Baby, born here,
With sup'rabundant scorn here;
Who for thy princely port here,
Hadst for thy place
Of birth, a base
Out-stable for thy court here.
Instead of neat enclosures
Of interwoven osiers;
Instead of fragrant posies
Of daffadils and roses,
Thy cradle, kingly stranger,
As gospel tells,
Was nothing else,
But, here, a homely manger.
But we with silks, not cruels,
With sundry precious jewels,
And lily-work will dress thee;
And as we dispossess thee
Of clo}ts, we'll make a chamber,
Sweet babe, for thee,
Of ivory,
And plaster'd round with amber.
The Jews, they did disdain thee;
But we will entertain thee
With glories to await here,
Upon thy princely state here,
And more for love than pity:
From year to year
We'll make thee, here,
A free-born of our city.
Scheme | XABBBAAB AAAACAAC AADDCDDC DDBBDXBD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0100111 111111 1101011 1111 1111011 1111 1101 1101111 0111010 10101 011101 11010 1101010 1101 1101 1101010 111111 1101010 0101111 011011 111111010 1111 1100 0101110 0111011 111011 1101011 0111011 0111110 1111 1111 01111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 813 |
Words | 149 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 161 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 38 Views
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"An ode of the birth of our saviour" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31267/an-ode-of-the-birth-of-our-saviour>.
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