Lyric Poem · Nature
To the Rose: Song
Go, happy Rose, and interwove
With other flowers, bind my Love.
Tell her, too, she must not be
Longer flowing, longer free,
That so oft has fetter'd me.
Say, if she's fretful, I have bands
Of pearl and gold, to bind her hands;
Tell her, if she struggle still,
I have myrtle rods at will,
For to tame, though not to kill.
Take thou my blessing thus, and go
And tell her this, — but do not so! —
Lest a handsome anger fly
Like a lightning from her eye,
And burn thee up, as well as I!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“To the Rose: Song” by Robert Herrick — quilloak.com/poems/to-the-rose-song
Quick facts
- Poem
- To the Rose: Song
- Poet
- Robert Herrick
- Length
- 15 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Love
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
- 15 lines · 3 quintains
- End rhyme
- AABBB in 67% of the stanzas. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
- Line length
- Lines run 7-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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
- PoetryDBTo the Rose: Song 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 6f5b76221e1403b6…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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