Delight in Disorder

“Delight in Disorder” is a lyric poem, concentrating on the speaker’s emotions regarding the observation of a woman whose attire is in a state of slight disarray. The poem is made up of 14 lines organized into seven sets of rhyming couplets, without stanza breaks. Each line is written in iambic tetrameter (except for Lines 2 and 8). Each line contains four iambs, made up of an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed one. 

The differing count of two of the lines hints at the value of slight imperfection, which is part of the theme. End rhyming also further enhances this concept, as Herrick’s speaker employs exact end rhyming in the first, third, fifth, and seventh couplets, juxtaposing them with near end rhyming in the second, fourth, and sixth couplets. For example, “note” (Line 9) rhymes exactly with “petticoat” (Line 10), but the previous couplet contains the off rhyme of “thereby” (Line 7) and “confusedly” (Line 8), while the following couplet rhymes “tie” (Line 11) with “civility” (Line 12). How off these rhymes would seem depends on the standard speech at the time, but if the pronunciation were similar to today, the off rhyming reinforces the contrasts and disarray celebrated in the poem’s content.