The hag

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



The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride,
The devil and she together;
Through thick and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne'er so foul be the weather.

A thorn or a bur
She takes for a spur;
With a lash of a bramble she rides now,
Through brakes and through briars,
O'er ditches and mires,
She follows the spirit that guides now.

No beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood,
But hush'd in his lair he lies lurking;
While mischiefs, by these,
On land and on seas,
At noon of night are a-working.

The storm will arise,
And trouble the skies
This night; and, more for(the wonder,
The ghost from the tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Call'd out by the clap of the thunder.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

40 sec read
107

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCCB BBDEED XXFEEF EEBXXB
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 663
Words 131
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6

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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