Analysis of To Daffodils

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



Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
    You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
    Has not attain'd his noon.
            Stay, stay,
        Until the hasting day
            Has run
        But to the even-song;
And, having pray'd together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
    We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
    As you, or anything.
            We die
        As your hours do, and dry
            Away,
        Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.


Scheme ABCBDDCEAE FGDGHHDXFX
Poetic Form Etheree  (25%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1101111 110111 11010101 110111 11 010101 11 110101 01010101 111101 11111111 111101 11011101 11110 11 1110101 01 110101 11011101 111101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 557
Words 96
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 10
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 176
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

30 sec read
208

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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