Analysis of A Ring Presented to Julia

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



Julia, I bring
To thee this Ring.
Made for thy finger fit;
To shew by this,
That our love is
(Or sho'd be) like to it.

Close though it be,
The joynt is free:
So when Love's yoke is on,
It must not gall,
Or fret at all
With hard oppression.

But it must play
Still either way;
And be, too, such a yoke,
As not too wide,
To over-slide;
Or be so strait to choak.

So we, who beare,
The beame, must reare
Our selves to such a height:
As that the stay
Of either may
Create the burden light.

And as this round
Is no where found
To flaw, or else to sever:
So let our love
As endless prove;
And pure as Gold for ever.


Scheme AABXXB CCXDDX EEXFFA GGHEEH IIJXXJ
Poetic Form Tetractys  (43%)
Etheree  (33%)
Metre 1011 1111 111101 1111 11011 111111 1111 0111 111111 1111 1111 11010 1111 1101 011101 1111 1101 111111 1111 0111 1011101 1101 1101 010101 0111 1111 1111110 11101 1101 0111110
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 615
Words 130
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 15
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 90
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
87

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…

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