Analysis of To Live Merrily, And To Trust To Good Verses
Robert Herrick 1591 (London) – 1674 (Dean Prior)
Now is the time for mirth,
Nor cheek or tongue be dumb;
For with the flow'ry earth
The golden pomp is come.
The golden pomp is come;
For now each tree does wear,
Made of her pap and gum,
Rich beads of amber here.
Now reigns the rose, and now
Th' Arabian dew besmears
My uncontrolled brow
And my retorted hairs.
Homer, this health to thee,
In sack of such a kind
That it would make thee see
Though thou wert ne'er so blind.
Next, Virgil I'll call forth
To pledge this second health
In wine, whose each cup's worth
An Indian commonwealth.
A goblet next I'll drink
To Ovid, and suppose,
Made he the pledge, he'd think
The world had all one nose.
Then this immensive cup
Of aromatic wine,
Catullus, I quaff up
To that terse muse of thine.
Wild I am now with heat;
O Bacchus! cool thy rays!
Or frantic, I shall eat
Thy thyrse, and bite the bays.
Round, round the roof does run;
And being ravish'd thus,
Come, I will drink a tun
To my Propertius.
Now, to Tibullus, next,
This flood I drink to thee;
But stay, I see a text
That this presents to me.
Behold, Tibullus lies
Here burnt, whose small return
Of ashes scarce suffice
To fill a little urn.
Trust to good verses then;
They only will aspire,
When pyramids, as men,
Are lost i' th' funeral fire.
And when all bodies meet,
In Lethe to be drown'd,
Then only numbers sweet
With endless life are crown'd.
Scheme | abaB Bxbx cdcd efdf xgag hdhd ijij kdkd xdcd lele dmdm nxnx koko |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (85%) |
Metre | 110111 111111 11011 010111 010111 111111 110101 111101 110101 11010011 1011 010101 101111 011101 111111 111111 110111 111101 011111 110010 010111 11001 110111 011111 1111 10101 1111 111111 111111 110111 110111 110101 110111 01011 111101 111 1111 111111 111101 111011 0111 111101 110101 110101 111101 110101 110011 1111110010 011101 01111 110101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,409 |
Words | 260 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 79 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 20 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 115 Views
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"To Live Merrily, And To Trust To Good Verses" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31458/to-live-merrily%2C-and-to-trust-to-good-verses>.
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