Analysis of To his saviour, a child;a present, by a child

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



Go, pretty child, and bear this flower
Unto thy little Saviour;
And tell him, by that bud now blown,
He is the Rose of Sharon known.
When thou hast said so, stick it there
Upon his bib or stomacher;
And tell him, for good handsel too,
That thou hast brought a whistle new,
Made of a clean straight oaten reed,
To charm his cries at time of need;
Tell him, for coral, thou hast none,
But if thou hadst, he should have one;
But poor thou art, and known to be
Even as moneyless as he.
Lastly, if thou canst win a kiss
From those melifluous lips of his;--
Then never take a second on,
To spoil the first impression.


Scheme AABBCADDEEFFGGHIJF
Poetic Form
Metre 110101110 101101 01111111 11011101 11111111 011111 0111111 11110101 1101111 11111111 11110111 11111111 11110111 10110011 10111101 111111 11010101 1101010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 602
Words 123
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 466
Words per stanza (avg) 120
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
51

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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