Country Life: To His Brother, Mr Thomas Herrick Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFFGHIIBBJJKK CCLLMMNNOOPPQRSSRRTT BBBBBBRRSSRRUUBBRRBV BBRRNRBBWWXXYVZZBBBB UUBBBBRRUUBBRRUURRRR UUUURRBBUURRBVBBRRUU BBA2A2B2C2RRD2D2E2E2 UURRUUF2F2G2G2BB| Thrice and above blest my soul's half art thou | A |
| In thy both last and better vow | A |
| Could'st leave the city for exchange to see | B |
| The country's sweet simplicity | B |
| And it to know and practise with intent | C |
| To grow the sooner innocent | D |
| By studying to know virtue and to aim | E |
| More at her nature than her name | E |
| The last is but the least the first doth tell | F |
| Ways less to live than to live well | F |
| And both are known to thee who now canst live | G |
| Led by thy conscience to give | H |
| Justice to soon pleased nature and to show | I |
| Wisdom and she together go | I |
| And keep one centre This with that conspires | B |
| To teach man to confine desires | B |
| And know that riches have their proper stint | J |
| In the contented mind not mint | J |
| And canst instruct that those who have the itch | K |
| Of craving more are never rich | K |
| These things thou knows't to th' height and dost prevent | C |
| That plague because thou art content | C |
| With that Heaven gave thee with a wary hand | L |
| More blessed in thy brass than land | L |
| To keep cheap Nature even and upright | M |
| To cool not cocker appetite | M |
| Thus thou canst tersely live to satisfy | N |
| The belly chiefly not the eye | N |
| Keeping the barking stomach wisely quiet | O |
| Less with a neat than needful diet | O |
| But that which most makes sweet thy country life | P |
| Is the fruition of a wife | P |
| Whom stars consenting with thy fate thou hast | Q |
| Got not so beautiful as chaste | R |
| By whose warm side thou dost securely sleep | S |
| While Love the sentinel doth keep | S |
| With those deeds done by day which ne'er affright | R |
| Thy silken slumbers in the night | R |
| Nor has the darkness power to usher in | T |
| Fear to those sheets that know no sin | T |
| The damask'd meadows and the pebbly streams | B |
| Sweeten and make soft your dreams | B |
| The purling springs groves birds and well weaved bowers | B |
| With fields enamelled with flowers | B |
| Present their shapes while fantasy discloses | B |
| Millions of Lilies mix'd with Roses | B |
| Then dream ye hear the lamb by many a bleat | R |
| Woo'd to come suck the milky teat | R |
| While Faunus in the vision comes to keep | S |
| From rav'ning wolves the fleecy sheep | S |
| With thousand such enchanting dreams that meet | R |
| To make sleep not so sound as sweet | R |
| Nor call these figures so thy rest endear | U |
| As not to rise when Chanticlere | U |
| Warns the last watch but with the dawn dost rise | B |
| To work but first to sacrifice | B |
| Making thy peace with Heaven for some late fault | R |
| With holy meal and spirting salt | R |
| Which done thy painful thumb this sentence tells us | B |
| 'Jove for our labour all things sells us ' | V |
| Nor are thy daily and devout affairs | B |
| Attended with those desp'rate cares | B |
| Th' industrious merchant has who for to find | R |
| Gold runneth to the Western Ind | R |
| And back again tortured with fears doth fly | N |
| Untaught to suffer Poverty | R |
| But thou at home blest with securest ease | B |
| Sitt'st and believ'st that there be seas | B |
| And watery dangers while thy whiter hap | W |
| But sees these things within thy map | W |
| And viewing them with a more safe survey | X |
| Mak'st easy fear unto thee say | X |
| 'A heart thrice walled with oak and brass that man | Y |
| Had first durst plough the ocean ' | V |
| But thou at home without or tide or gale | Z |
| Canst in thy map securely sail | Z |
| Seeing those painted countries and so guess | B |
| By those fine shades their substances | B |
| And from thy compass taking small advice | B |
| Buy'st travel at the lowest price | B |
| Nor are thine ears so deaf but thou canst hear | U |
| Far more with wonder than with fear | U |
| Fame tell of states of countries courts and kings | B |
| And believe there be such things | B |
| When of these truths thy happier knowledge lies | B |
| More in thine ears than in thine eyes | B |
| And when thou hear'st by that too true report | R |
| Vice rules the most or all at court | R |
| Thy pious wishes are though thou not there | U |
| Virtue had and moved her sphere | U |
| But thou liv'st fearless and thy face ne'er shows | B |
| Fortune when she comes or goes | B |
| But with thy equal thoughts prepared dost stand | R |
| To take her by the either hand | R |
| Nor car'st which comes the first the foul or fair | U |
| A wise man ev'ry way lies square | U |
| And like a surly oak with storms perplex'd | R |
| Grows still the stronger strongly vex'd | R |
| Be so bold Spirit stand centre like unmoved | R |
| And be not only thought but proved | R |
| To be what I report thee and inure | U |
| Thyself if want comes to endure | U |
| And so thou dost for thy desires are | U |
| Confined to live with private Lar | U |
| Nor curious whether appetite be fed | R |
| Or with the first or second bread | R |
| Who keep'st no proud mouth for delicious cates | B |
| Hunger makes coarse meats delicates | B |
| Canst and unurged forsake that larded fare | U |
| Which art not nature makes so rare | U |
| To taste boil'd nettles coleworts beets and eat | R |
| These and sour herbs as dainty meat | R |
| While soft opinion makes thy Genius say | B |
| 'Content makes all ambrosia ' | V |
| Nor is it that thou keep'st this stricter size | B |
| So much for want as exercise | B |
| To numb the sense of dearth which should sin haste it | R |
| Thou might'st but only see't not taste it | R |
| Yet can thy humble roof maintain a quire | U |
| Of singing crickets by thy fire | U |
| And the brisk mouse may feast herself with crumbs | B |
| Till that the green eyed kitling comes | B |
| Then to her cabin blest she can escape | A2 |
| The sudden danger of a rape | A2 |
| And thus thy little well kept stock doth prove | B2 |
| Wealth cannot make a life but love | C2 |
| Nor art thou so close handed but canst spend | R |
| Counsel concurring with the end | R |
| As well as spare still conning o'er this theme | D2 |
| To shun the first and last extreme | D2 |
| Ordaining that thy small stock find no breach | E2 |
| Or to exceed thy tether's reach | E2 |
| But to live round and close and wisely true | U |
| To thine own self and known to few | U |
| Thus let thy rural sanctuary be | R |
| Elysium to thy wife and thee | R |
| There to disport your selves with golden measure | U |
| For seldom use commends the pleasure | U |
| Live and live blest thrice happy pair let breath | F2 |
| But lost to one be th' other's death | F2 |
| And as there is one love one faith one troth | G2 |
| Be so one death one grave to both | G2 |
| Till when in such assurance live ye may | B |
| Nor fear or wish your dying day | B |
Robert Herrick
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation