Lyric Poem · Life
The Ceremonies for Candlemas Day
Kindle the Christmas brand, and then
Till sunset let it burn;
Which quench'd, then lay it up again,
Till Christmas next return.
Part must be kept, wherewith to teend
The Christmas log next year;
And where 'tis safely kept, the fiend
Can do no mischief there.
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“The Ceremonies for Candlemas Day” by Robert Herrick — quilloak.com/poems/the-ceremonies-for-candlemas-day
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Ceremonies for Candlemas Day
- Poet
- Robert Herrick
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Life, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
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
- 8 lines · 2 quatrains
- Line length
- Consistent with common metre. Alternating eight- and six-syllable lines — the hymn stanza (8.6.8.6), the most-used quatrain in English verse.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Herrick1591–1674
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Ceremonies for Candlemas Day 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 a6823b275d09dd69…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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