AG; “Prayer to Ben Jonson” – 6-5 6-5, 6-5 6-5 syllables. all about syllables and verse – “When I a verse…” (that’s page 277) – “When I a verse shall make,/Know I have pray’d thee, (not “to thee”, he didn’t want six-six, he wanted six-five)
“When I a verse shall make,/Know I have pray’d thee/For old religion’s sake,/Saint Ben to aid me. ” – (see what you can get if you just cut out a syllable, I mean, a funny syncopation) -“For old religion’s sake,/Saint Ben to aid me. ” – (There’s some… He cut out something there and it makes it.. like a little gap, or hole, or something, or some pretty piece-of-music gap there )
“When I a verse shall make,/Know I have pray’d thee/For old religion’s sake,/Saint Ben to aid me/Make the way smooth for me,/When I, thy Herrick/,Honouring thee, on my knee/ Offer my lyric./ Candles I’ll give to thee,/And a new altar,/And thou, Saint Ben, shalt be/Writ in my psalter.” – (that’s all, just that little, sweet little thing).
{Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately seventy-nine-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at approximately eighty-one minutes in}