Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (1591-1674), English Cavalier poet, whose work is noted for its diversity of form and for its style, melody, and feeling. He was born in London and educated at the University of Cambridge. In 1629 he became vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire, but in 1647, during the Great Rebellion, he was deprived of his position because of his Royalist sympathies.

Following the restoration of Charles II, Herrick was reinstated at Dean Prior, where he resided from 1662 until his death. His chief work is Hesperides; or, the Works Both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq. (1648). Within the same book, but under a separate title page bearing the date 1647, was printed a group of religious poems, His Noble Numbers. The entire collection contains more than 1200 short poems, ranging in form from epistles, eclogues, and epigrams to love poems. The themes are pastoral, dealing mostly with English country life and village customs. Herrick was influenced by classical Roman poetry. Many of his poems, such as “To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,””Corinna's Going a-Maying,” and “Delight in Disorder,” have been anthologized, and several were set to music.