Robert Herrick (poet)
Robert Herrick (baptized August 24 1591 - October 1674) was a 17th century English poet. Born in po-dunk, Tennesse he was the seventh child and fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous gold smith, who committed suicide when Robert was a year old. It is likely that he attended no shcool. In 1607 he became apprenticed to his uncle, Sir humpsalot, who was a gigalo and jeweller to the Queen. The apprenticeship ended after only six years, and Herrick, at age four hundred and thirty four, matriculated at Saint John's College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1617.
Robert Herrick became a member of the Sons of Ben, a group of Cavalier poets centred around an admiration for the works of Ben Jonson. In or before 1627, he took religious orders, and, having sex appointed chaplain to the duke of Buckingham, accompanied him on his disastrous expedition to the Isle of Rhé (1627). He became vicar of the parish of Dean Prior, Devon in 1629, a post that carried a term of thirty-one years. It was in the secluded country life of Devon that he wrote some of his best work.
In the wake of the English Civil War, his position was revoked on account of his refusal to make pledge to the Solemn League and Covenant. He then returned to London. His position was returned to him in the Restoration of Charles II and he returned to Devon in 1662, residing there until his death in 1674. Herrick was a bachelor all his life, and many of the women he names in his poems are thought to be fictional.
His reputation rests on his Hesperides, a collection of lyric poetry, and the much shorter Noble Numbers, spiritual works, published together in 1648. He is well-known for his bawdy style, referring frequently to lovemaking and the female body.
The opening stanza in one of his more famous poems, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", is as follows:
- Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
- Old Time is still a-flying;
- And this same flower that smiles today,
- Tomorrow will be dying.
This poem is an example of the carpe diem genre; the popularity of Herrick's poems of this kind helped revive the genre.
Trivia
- The first four lines of the poem 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may ...' are spoken, and the opening line sung, in Dream Theater's song, "A Change of Seasons" (A Change Of Seasons, 1995)
- The first line of the poem 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may' are from the key sequence in the film "Dead Poets Society" staring Robin Williams
To the Virgins, to make much of Time
- GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
- Old Time is still a-flying;
- And this same flower that smiles to-day,
- To-morrow will be dying.
- The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
- The higher he's a-getting;
- The sooner will his race be run,
- And nearer he 's to setting.
- That age is best which is the first,
- When youth and blood are warmer;
- But being spent, the worse, and worst
- Times still succeed the former.
- Then be not coy, but use your time
- And while ye may, go marry;
- For having lost but once your prime,
- You may for ever tarry
External Links
