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Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

LINKS

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herrick/

This link connects you to the Luminarium web site containing Herrick's poetry, essays, a timeline of the poet's life, and additional links.

http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=201

This link connects you to the Academy of American Poets. Here you will find an exhibit on Robert Herrick including a biography, online primary texts, criticism, bibliographic information, and additional links.

BIOGRAPHY

The son of a London goldsmith, Robert Herrick apprenticed to his uncle, also in the same trade, for six years between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two before entering Saint John's College, Cambridge. After graduating in 1617, Herrick was a protégé to Ben Jonson to whom he wrote five poems. Not just a poet, Herrick took holy orders in the Church of England in 1623 and served as vicar at Dean Prior in Devonshire until 1647 when, owing to his Royalist allegiances, he was removed during the Great Rebellion. That same year, Herrick published his first volume of verse Noble Numbers that was collected in his Herperides; or, the Works Both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq. (1648). This major book of more than 1200 poems includes carpe diem love lyrics, epigrams, elegies, and epistles. From his studies of Horace, Catullus, and other authors of classical antiquity, Herrick adapted the conventions of the Roman pastoral tradition to the tradition of the English eclogue in order to celebrate British village life and customs. With the Restoration of Charles II, Herrick resumed his office of vicar at Dean Prior from 1662 until his death in 1674.

SECONDARY SOURCES

Coiro, Ann Baynes. Robert Herrick's Hesperides and the Epigram Book Tradition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.

Deming, Roger H. Ceremony and Art: Robert Herrick's Poetry. Paris: Mouton, 1974.

Guibbory, Achsah. Ceremony and Community from Herbert to Milton : Literature, Religion, and Cultural Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Hageman, Elizabeth. Robert Herrick: A Reference Guide. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1983.

Rollin, Roger B. Robert Herrick. New York: Twayne, 1992.

Scott, George Walton. Robert Herrick: 1591-1674. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1974.

SECONDARY SOURCES BY CHAPTER