Lyric Poem · Spring
To the Water-nymphs Drinking at Thefountain
Reach with your whiter hands to me
Some crystal of the spring;
And I about the cup shall see
Fresh lilies flourishing.
Or else, sweet nymphs, do you but this —
To th' glass your lips incline;
And I shall see by that one kiss
The water turn'd to wine.
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“To the Water-nymphs Drinking at Thefountain” by Robert Herrick — quilloak.com/poems/to-the-water-nymphs-drinking-at-thefountain
Quick facts
- Poem
- To the Water-nymphs Drinking at Thefountain
- Poet
- Robert Herrick
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Spring, Love, Nature, 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.
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 Water-nymphs Drinking at Thefountain 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 c4b39ab4defdd346…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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