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The old wives' Prayer

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

Holy-Rood, come forth and shield
Us i' th' city and the field;
Safely guard us, now and aye,
From the blast that burns by day;
And those sounds that us affright
In the dead of dampish night;
Drive all hurtful fiends us fro,
By the time the cocks first crow.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

15 sec read
100

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCADEE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 258
Words 52
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 8
Full analysis for The old wives' Prayer »

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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