TWA Poet: Robert Herrick

1591-1674

It’s the baptismal day of poet Robert Herrick (1591). He’s the author of the lines, “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.” They appear in his poem “To the Virgins, to make much of Time.” He worked as a goldsmith, went to college, and left London for the English countryside, where he stayed for many years and wrote most of his poetry. He wrote short lyric poems and songs. He wrote about seducing women and taking advantage of your youth, but he never married and most of the women in his poems were probably imaginary. Herrick became a member of the Sons of Ben, a group that admired for works of Ben Jonson, to whom he wrote at least five poems. Herrick was ordained into the Church of England in 1623. He also wrote religious poems. His poetry was distributed among friends and eventually reached people in higher places, making Herrick known throughout England. In 1648, he published Hesperides, which contained more than 1,000 poems.

Books by Robert Herrick