Poetry (1) by Robert Herrick

PRIMARY SOURCE: (circa 1648)

1. "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time"
2. "To Marigolds"
3. “His Prayer to Ben Jonson”
4. "Delight in Disorder”

Context

• Publication: Born to a well-to-do London goldsmith and educated at St. John's and Trinity. Consorts with Ben Jonson at the Devil Tavern. Employed as a deacon and chaplain on Buckingham's expedition against Ile de Re, 1627.Vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire, 1629-47. Enters poems in the Stationers' Register, 1640. Expelled from vicarage for Royalist sympathies, returns to London. Publishes Hesperides in 1648. Returns to Devonshire in 1660, dies in 1674. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have read Herrick for the Son of Ben poems, as well as his connections to the Royalist faction. Herrick's poetry resembles a neo-classical interest in sexuality and beauty.
• Why I'm reading it: The counter-canon, illustrated title page.

Content

• Form:

1. "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time"
   Ballad meter, abab; four stanzas.
2. "To Marigolds"
   Iambic pentameter, couplets.
3. “His Prayer to Ben Jonson”
   Iambic trimeter in ballad style, abab; three stanzas.
4. "Delight in Disorder”
   Iambic tetrameter; couplets.

• Genre:

1. "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time"
   Commendation
2. "To Marigolds"
   Erotic nature poem
3. “His Prayer to Ben Jonson”
   Elegy, prayer
4. "Delight in Disorder”
   Love lyric?

• Conceit:

1. "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time"
   Life as a day; people should marry young, since they will have old age to tarry.
2. "To Marigolds"
   Marigolds should open to the sun and be maids when he goes away. Marigold flowers = lady parts
3. “His Prayer to Ben Jonson”
   Herrick's poems are prayers to Saint Ben, whose writing is in Herrick's psalter.
4. "Delight in Disorder”
   A little disorder in a woman's dress is more attractive than a perfect outfit.

• Other notes: