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 1623, and took the living of Dean Prior, near Ashburton, Devonshire, in 1629. A royalist supporter, he lost his living in 1647 and retired to London; it was restored to him in 1662. He died and was buried at Dean Prior; he is one of the poets memorialized in Poets' Corner Window (above Chaucer's tomb) in the South Transept of Westminster Abbey. His only book, Hesperides, was published in 1648, comprising some 1400 poems, some quite short. "Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May" and "Cherry Ripe" are his best known. The English composer Henry Lawes and others wrote the music for some of poems. Some of his other poems: "A Bachanalian Verse," "A Canticle to Apollo," "All Things Decay and Die," "Ceremonies for Christmas," "Songs of New London," "The Deluge," "The Fairies," "The Good-Night, or Blessing," "The Wounded Heart."

   Sources: An Anthology of Revolutionary Poetry. Marcus Graham, ed. The Active Press, 1929. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. ChadwyckHealey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Cavalier Poets. Robin Skelton, ed. Oxford University Press, 1970. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poems of Robert Herrick. L.C. Martin, ed. Oxford University Press, 1965. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).