Robert Herrick (poet)

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Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick, illustration based on Hesperides impression.
Born	baptised August 24, 1591 Cheapside, London, England
Died	buried 15 October 1674 Dean Prior, Devon, England
Occupation	Poet and clergyman

Robert Herrick (baptized August 24, 1591–buried 15 October 1674^[1]) was a 17th century English poet.

1 Biography
2 Poetic style and stature
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith, who committed suicide when Robert was a year old. It is likely that he attended Westminster School. In 1607 he became apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick, who was a goldsmith and jeweler to the king. The apprenticeship ended after only six years when Herrick, at age twenty-two, matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1617. Robert Herrick became a member of the Sons of Ben, a group of Cavalier poets centered around an admiration for the works of Ben Jonson.

[edit] Dean Prior

In or before 1627, he took religious orders, and, having been appointed chaplain to the duke of Buckingham, accompanied him on his disastrous expedition to the Isle of Rhé (1627). In 1630 he became the vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire, 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.

The stipend (pay) for this living was small, and the contrast to his life in London must have been great. However, he took his responsibilities as a parish priest seriously, and he was essentially a man with a happy and friendly temperament. Local people described him as becoming much beloved by the Gentry in those parts for his florid and witty discourse, even though (as his biographer Alfred Pollard records^[2]) he had been known to throw the manuscript of his sermon at an unfortunate parishioner who happened to drop off to sleep during it. His poem A Thanksgiving to God, for his House describes an idyllic and placid life, surrounded by his animals and cared for devotedly by his maid, Prudence Baldwin.

[edit] Civil War

Title page of Hesperides (1648)

In the wake of the English Civil War, his position was revoked on account of his refusal to make pledge to the Solemn League and Covenant.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. During this time, he lived in Westminster, in London, depending on the charity of his friends and family. He spent some time preparing his lyric poems for publication, and had them printed in 1648 under the title Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, with a dedication to the Prince of Wales.

[edit] Restoration and later life

When King Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, Herrick petitioned for his own restoration to his living. Perhaps King Charles felt kindly towards this genial man, who had written verses celebrating the births of both Charles II and his brother James before the Civil War. Herrick became the vicar of Dean Prior again in the summer of 1662 and lived there until his death in October 1674, at the ripe age of 83. His date of death is not known, but he was buried on 15 October. Herrick was a bachelor all his life, and many of the women he names in his poems are thought to be fictional. ^[3]

[edit] Poetic style and stature

His reputation rests on Hesperides, and the much shorter Noble Numbers, spiritual works, published together in 1648. He is well-known for his style and, in his earlier works, frequent references to lovemaking and the female body. His later poetry was more of a spiritual and philosophical nature. Among his most famous short poetical sayings are the unique monometers, such as "Thus I / Pass by / And die,/ As one / Unknown / And gone."

Herrick sets out his subject-matter in the poem he printed at the beginning of his collection, The Argument of his Book. He dealt with English country life and its seasons, village customs, complimentary poems to various ladies and his friends, themes taken from classical writings and a solid bedrock of Christian faith, not intellectualized but underpinning the rest.

Herrick never married, and none of his love-poems seem to connect directly with any one beloved woman. He loved the richness of sensuality and the variety of life, and this is shown vividly in such poems as Cherry-ripe, Delight in Disorder and Upon Julia’s Clothes.

Gather Ye rosebuds While Ye May, by John William Waterhouse, (1909)

The over-riding message of Herrick’s work is that life is short, the world is beautiful, love is splendid, and we must use the short time we have to make the most of it. This message can be seen clearly in To the Virgins, to make much of Time, To Daffodils, To Blossoms and Corinna going a-Maying, where the warmth and exuberance of what seems to have been a kindly and jovial personality comes over strongly.

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.

His poems were not widely popular at the time they were published. His style was strongly influenced by Ben Jonson, by the classical Roman writers, and by the poems of the late Elizabethan age. This must have seemed quite old-fashioned to an audience whose tastes were tuned to the complexities of the metaphysical poets such as John Donne and Andrew Marvell. His works were rediscovered in the early nineteenth century, and have been regularly printed ever since.

The Victorian poet Swinburne described Herrick as the greatest song writer...ever born of English race. It is certainly true that despite his use of classical allusions and names, his poems are easier for modern readers to understand than those of many of his contemporaries. This is partly because they are less profound, and partly because he expresses his thoughts and feelings with such grace and precision.

[edit] See also

Country house poems

[edit] References

^ [1].
^ Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I and II. Alfred Pollard, ed. London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891
^ Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets, ed. Hugh Maclean (New York: Norton, 1974), p. 106.