Lyric Poem · Sad

Comfort to a Youth That Had Lost His Love

by Robert Herrick

Reading room

1What needs complaints,

2When she a place

3Has with the race

4Of saints?

5In endless mirth,

6She thinks not on

7What's said or done

8In earth:

9She sees no tears,

10Or any tone

11Of thy deep groan

12She hears;

13Nor does she mind,

14Or think on't now,

15That ever thou

16Wast kind: —

17But changed above,

18She likes not there,

19As she did here,

20Thy love.

21 — Forbear, therefore,

22And lull asleep

23Thy woes, and weep

24No more.

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“Comfort to a Youth That Had Lost His Love” by Robert Herrick — quilloak.com/poems/comfort-to-a-youth-that-had-lost-his-love

Quick facts

Poem: Comfort to a Youth That Had Lost His Love
Poet: Robert Herrick
Length: 24 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Sad, Love, Childhood

Craft notes

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Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 24 lines · one 24-line stanza
Line length: Mostly 4-syllable lines (dimeter length).

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Text, source & rights

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Author record: Robert Herrick1591–1674
Source record: PoetryDBComfort to a Youth That Had Lost His Love by robert-herrick, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 719011f372144cb9…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Sad Love Childhood

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