( Poem #398) The Night Piece, To Julia Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee,
The shooting stars attend thee;
And the elves also,
Whose little eyes glow
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.
No Will-o'-th'-Wisp mis-light thee,
Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee;
But on, on thy way,
Not making a stay,
Since ghost there's none to affright thee.
Let not the dark thee cumber;
What though the moon does slumber?
The stars of the night
Will lend thee their light,
Like tapers clear without number.
Then Julia let me woo thee,
Thus, thus to come unto me;
And when I shall meet
Thy silv'ry feet,
My soul I'll pour into thee.
-- Robert Herrick |
Another of those wonderfully musical poems the rhythm of which sticks in my
mind long after the words have faded. In fact, the poem as a whole is
notable not so much as a love poem, as for the wonderful way the background
is woven - the soft rhythm, the gentle images of a night punctuated by a
million living points of light, are evocative without being overdrawn.
And if someone can tell me why he wants to meet her silv'ry feet (of all
things) do write in :)
Biography and Assessment:
Herrick, Robert
(baptized Aug. 24, 1591, London, Eng.--d. October 1674, Dean Prior,
Devonshire), English cleric and poet, the most original of the "sons of
Ben [Jonson]," who revived the spirit of the ancient classic lyric. He is
best remembered for the line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."
During the time that he was apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick,
a prosperous and influential goldsmith, he cultivated the society of the
London wits. In 1613 he went to the University of Cambridge, graduating in
1617. He took his M.A. in 1620 and was ordained in 1623. Herrick returned
to London for a time, keeping in touch with court society and enlarging
his acquaintance with Ben Jonson and other writers and musicians. 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, worldy, 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 Ben Jonson and
Robert Burton.
-- EB
Links:
We've run one Herrick poem on Minstrels: Delight in Disorder poem #332
For a larger selection of his works, see two of my favourite poetry sites:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/authors/herrick.html
[broken link] http://geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems/poem-gh.html
- martin
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