Poet of the past: Robert Herrick
THE charming poem, The Succession of the Foure Sweet Months, by clergyman and poet Robert Herrick, was first published in 1648. Yet it was not until the 19th and 20th centuries that Herrick became more widely recognised. The simple lyricism of his poems have led him to be considered one of the most accomplished non-dramatic poets of his age, one who the Victorian poet, Charles Swinburne, described as “the greatest song-writer . . . ever born of the English race”. His poems are easier to read than many of his contemporaries.
Herrick was baptised on 24th August, 1591, in Cheapside, London, the seventh child of Nicholas and
Julia Herrick. A year later his father, a prosperous goldsmith, died falling from the window of the fourth floor of their house. Whether this was suicide remains unknown but the Queen’s Almoner did not, as was the case for suicides in those days, confiscate Herrick’s estate for the crown.
Educated at the Merchant Taylors School, Herrick left at the age of sixteen to become apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick, also a goldsmith and jeweller to the King. After six years he terminated his apprenticeship and entered St John’s College, Cambridge. He subsequently transferred to a less-expensive college, Trinity Hall, from where he graduated in 1617.
In 1623 he took holy orders in London, but was not assigned to a parish. During this period he continued writing poetry which he had begun at university. He became acquainted with Ben Jonson, the eminent dramatist, poet, actor and man of letters and became a member of the Sons of Ben, a group centred on admiration for Jonson’s works. Herrick dedicated at least five of his poems to Jonson.
In 1627, Herrick became a chaplain to George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, when he led an expedition to liberate French Protestants from Saint-Martin-de-Ré. Due to illness amongst the troops, effective action by the French and a storm at sea when Buckingham’s
ships were returning to England, two-thirds of the force perished.
It was no surprise then that in 1629, Herrick took up the appointment as vicar of St George the Martyr, the parish church of Dean Prior near Buckfastleigh in Devon, thus exchaging a life of uncertainty for one of comfort. Here, living the secluded life of a country parson, he wrote some of his most memorable poems.
Herrick took his duties seriously and local people described him as “much beloved by the gentry in those parts for his florid and witty discourse”. Cared for by his devoted maid, Prudence Baldwin, he never married and none of his poems refer to the love of one woman, though some of his early works make references to the female body and lovemaking.
In 1647, in the wake of the Civil War, Herrick, a devoted Royalist refused to make pledge to the Solemn League and Covenant and had his position as vicar revoked. He returned to London where, dependent on the charity of friends and family, he prepared his poems for publication. There were 1,402 of them, including The Succession of the Foure Sweet Months, published as “Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick”.
When King Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, Herrick petitioned to be restored to his living and in 1662 he once again became the vicar of Dean Prior. He lived there until his death in October 1674 at the age of 83. He, and his maid, lie in unmarked graves in the churchyard.
The overriding message of
Herrick’s work is that life is short, the world is beautiful, love is splendid, and in the short time we have we must make the most of it. In another poem he wrote the well-known phrase “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” and in today’s uncertain world his words seem as poignantly relevant as when he first wrote them.
ROGER PAINE