Analysis of Farewell frost, or welcome spring

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



Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appear
Reclothed in fresh and verdant diaper;
Thaw'd are the snows; and now the lusty Spring
Gives to each mead a neat enamelling;
The palms put forth their gems, and every tree
Now swaggers in her leafy gallantry.
The while the Daulian minstrel sweetly sings
With warbling notes her Terean sufferings.
--What gentle winds perspire!  as if here
Never had been the northern plunderer
To strip the trees and fields, to their distress,
Leaving them to a pitied nakedness.
And look how when a frantic storm doth tear
A stubborn oak or holm, long growing there,--
But lull'd to calmness, then succeeds a breeze
That scarcely stirs the nodding leaves of trees;
So when this war, which tempest-like doth spoil
Our salt, our corn, our honey, wine, and oil,
Falls to a temper, and doth mildly cast
His inconsiderate frenzy off, at last,
The gentle dove may, when these turmoils cease,
Bring in her bill, once more, the branch of Peace.


Scheme ABCCDDEEFAGEHHIIJJKKLL
Poetic Form
Metre 1101010101 10101010 1101010101 1111011 01111101001 110010100 010110101 1100101100 110101111 10110101 1101011101 1011011 0111010111 0101111101 1111010101 1101010111 1111110111 1011011010101 1101001101 1110111 010111111 1001110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 953
Words 172
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 22
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 761
Words per stanza (avg) 170
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

52 sec read
102

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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