Herrick, Robert

Herrick, Robert
(baptized Aug. 24, 1591, London, Eng.
died October 1674, Dean Prior, Devonshire) English poet.

Educated at Cambridge and later ordained, he became known as a poet in the 1620s and by the end of that decade had become a country vicar in Devonshire. A disciple of Ben Jonson, he wrote classically influenced lyrics whose appeal is in their freshness and their perfection of form and style. The only book he published was Hesperides (1648), containing 1,400 poems, mostly short, many of them epigrams. He is best remembered for the line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."

Robert Herrick, detail of an engraving by W. Marshall, from the frontispiece to Hesperides, ...

By courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.

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▪ English clergyman and poet
baptized Aug. 24, 1591, London, Eng.
died October 1674, Dean Prior, Devonshire
 English cleric and poet, the most original of the “sons of Ben [Jonson] (Jonson, Ben),” who revived the spirit of the ancient classic lyric. He is best remembered for the line “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

      As a boy, Herrick was apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick, a prosperous and influential goldsmith. In 1613 he went to the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1617. He took his M.A. in 1620 and was ordained in 1623. He then lived for a time in London, cultivating the society of the city's wits, enlarging his acquaintance with writers (Ben Jonson being the most prominent) and musicians, and enjoying the round of court society. In 1627 he went as a chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham on the military expedition to the Île de Ré to relieve La Rochelle from the French Protestants. He was presented with the living of Dean Prior (1629), where he remained for the rest of his life, except when, because of his Royalist sympathies, he was deprived of his post from 1646 until after the Restoration (1660).

      Herrick became well known as a poet about 1620–30; many manuscript commonplace books from that time contain his poems. The only book that Herrick published was Hesperides (1648), which included His Noble Numbers, a collection of poems on religious subjects with its own title page dated 1647 but not previously printed. Hesperides contained about 1,400 poems, mostly very short, many of them being brief epigrams. His work appeared after that in miscellanies and songbooks; the 17th-century English composer Henry Lawes and others set some of his songs.

      Herrick wrote elegies, satires, epigrams, love songs to imaginary mistresses, marriage songs, complimentary verse to friends and patrons, and celebrations of rustic and ecclesiastical festivals. The appeal of his poetry lies in its truth to human sentiments and its perfection of form and style. Frequently light, worldly, and hedonistic, and making few pretensions to intellectual profundity, it yet covers a wide range of subjects and emotions, ranging from lyrics inspired by rural life to wistful evocations of life and love's evanescence and fleeting beauty. Herrick's lyrics are notable for their technical mastery and the interplay of thought, rhythm, and imagery that they display. As a poet Herrick was steeped in the classical tradition; he was also influenced by English folklore and lyrics, by Italian madrigals, by the Bible and patristic literature, and by contemporary English writers, notably Jonson and Robert Burton.

Additional Reading
George Walton Scott, Robert Herrick, 1591–1674 (1974); F.W. Moorman, Robert Herrick (1962); Ann Baynes Coiro, Robert Herrick's Hesperides and the Epigram Book Tradition (1988).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Herrick, Robert — (1591 1674)    When he was one year of age, his father, a London goldsmith, died, and the children were put in the care of his uncle, Sir William Hericke, also a goldsmith. He graduated M.A. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1620, was ordained in… …   British and Irish poets

  • Herrick,Robert — Her·rick (hĕrʹĭk), Robert. 1591 1674. English lyric poet whose sensuous, simple works, such as “Delight in Disorder” (1648), are marked by his affinity for Latin verse and the influence of Ben Jonson. He is considered the greatest Cavalier poet.… …   Universalium

  • Herrick, Robert — ► (1591 1674) Poeta inglés. Trató temas bucólicos y religiosos. Autor de Hespérides y Rimas sagradas. * * * (bautizado el 24 ago. 1591, Londres, Inglaterra–oct. 1674, Dean Prior, Devonshire). Poeta inglés. Estudió en Cambridge y luego fue… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • HERRICK, ROBERT —    a Caroline poet, born in London, of good family; was incumbent of Dean Prior in Devonshire; author of the Hesperides, published in 1648, a collection of gay and charming pieces, in which, says Stopford Brooke, Horace and Tibullus seem to… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

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  • Herrick, Robert —    см. Херрик, Роберт …   Писатели США. Краткие творческие биографии

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  • Robert Herrick — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Robert Herrick (bautizado el 24 de agosto de 1591 † en octubre de 1674) fue un poeta inglés del siglo XVII. Nació en Cheapside, Londres, y falleció en Dean Prior, Devon. Escribió poemas profanos y religiosos. Esta… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Robert Herrick — (baptisé le 24 août 1591, décédé en octobre 1674) est un poète anglais du XVIIe siècle. Biographie Né à Cheapside, à Londres, il est le septième enfant et le quatri …   Wikipédia en Français

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