Analysis of To the rose: song

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



Go, happy Rose, and interwove
With other flowers, bind my Love.
Tell her, too, she must not be
Longer flowing, longer free,
That so oft has fetter'd me.

Say, if she's fretful, I have bands
Of pearl and gold, to bind her hands;
Tell her, if she struggle still,
I have myrtle rods at will,
For to tame, though not to kill.

Take thou my blessing thus, and go
And tell her this,--but do not so!--
Lest a handsome anger fly
Like a lightning from her eye,
And burn thee up, as well as I!


Scheme AABBB CCDDD EEFFF
Poetic Form
Metre 110101 11010111 1011111 1010101 1111101 11110111 11011101 1011101 1110111 1111111 11110101 01011111 1010101 1010101 01111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 475
Words 99
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 119
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
370

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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