Analysis of To music, to becalm his fever

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



Charm me asleep, and melt me so
With thy delicious numbers;
That being ravish'd, hence I go
Away in easy slumbers.
Ease my sick head,
And make my bed,
Thou Power that canst sever
From me this ill;--
And quickly still,
Though thou not kill
My fever.

Thou sweetly canst convert the same
From a consuming fire,
Into a gentle-licking flame,
And make it thus expire.
Then make me weep
My pains asleep,
And give me such reposes,
That I, poor I,
May think, thereby,
I live and die
'Mongst roses.

Fall on me like a silent dew,
Or like those maiden showers,
Which, by the peep of day, do strew
A baptism o'er the flowers.
Melt, melt my pains
With thy soft strains;
That having ease me given,
With full delight,
I leave this light,
And take my flight
For Heaven.


Scheme ABAACCDEEED FDFXGGAHHHX IBIBJJKLLLK
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111 1101010 1101111 010101 1111 0111 1101110 1111 0101 1111 110 11011001 1001010 01010101 011101 1111 1101 01111 1111 1111 1101 110 11110101 1111010 11011111 010010010 1111 1111 1101110 1101 1111 0111 110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 728
Words 145
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 11, 11, 11
Lines Amount 33
Letters per line (avg) 17
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 192
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
141

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…

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