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Lyric Poem · Nature

Upon Mrs Eliz. Wheeler, Under the Name Ofamarillis

by Robert Herrick

1Sweet Amarillis, by a spring's

2Soft and soul-melting murmurings,

3Slept; and thus sleeping, thither flew

4A Robin-red-breast; who at view,

5Not seeing her at all to stir,

6Brought leaves and moss to cover her:

7But while he, perking, there did pry

8About the arch of either eye,

9The lid began to let out day, —

10At which poor Robin flew away;

11And seeing her not dead, but all disleaved,

12He chirpt for joy, to see himself deceived.

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Quick facts

Poem
Upon Mrs Eliz. Wheeler, Under the Name Ofamarillis
Poet
Robert Herrick
Length
12 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Spring, Death & Loss

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
12 lines · one 12-line stanza
Line length
Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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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
PoetryDBUpon Mrs Eliz. Wheeler, Under the Name Ofamarillis 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 4912f8073ba6b245
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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