Analysis of Proof to No Purpose

Robert Herrick 1591 (London) – 1674 (Dean Prior)



You see this gentle stream that glides,
Shoved on, by quick-succeeding tides:
Try if this sober stream you can
Follow to th' wider ocean,
And see, if there it keeps unspent
In that congesting element.
Next, from that world of waters, then
By pores and caverns back again
Induct that inadultrate same
Stream to the spring from whence it came.
This with a wonder when ye do,
As easy, and else easier too:
Then ye may recollect the grains
Of my particular remains,
After a thousand lusters hurled,
By roughing winds, around the world.


Scheme AABCDEFFGGHHIIJJ
Poetic Form
Metre 11110111 11110101 11110111 101111010 01111101 011100 11111101 11010101 01111 11011111 11010111 110011001 1110101 11010001 1001011 11010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 531
Words 94
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 420
Words per stanza (avg) 94
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified by RobertHaigh on June 15, 2020

28 sec read
87

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was born in London, England, in 1591. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith (his uncle, Sir William), but went to Cambridge, at St John's, in 1613. He was ordained at Peterborough in 1623 and became chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham a few years later. "Hesperides" - a collection of 1200 lyrical poems - was published in 1648 and it remained his magnum opus. Herrick died in 1674, aged 83. more…

All Robert Herrick poems | Robert Herrick Books

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