Analysis of To death

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



Thou bidst me come away,
And I'll no longer stay,
Than for to shed some tears
For faults of former years;
And to repent some crimes
Done in the present times;
And next, to take a bit
Of bread, and wine with it;
To don my robes of love,
Fit for the place above;
To gird my loins about
With charity throughout;
And so to travel hence
With feet of innocence;
These done, I'll only cry,
'God, mercy!' and so die.


Scheme AABCDDEEFFGGHIJJ
Poetic Form
Metre 111101 011101 111111 111101 010111 100101 011101 110111 111111 110101 111101 110001 011101 111100 111101 110011
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 401
Words 84
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 308
Words per stanza (avg) 81
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 29, 2023

25 sec read
378

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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