Robert  Herrick photo

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is best known for Hesperides, a book of poems. This includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", with the first line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may".


“Some would know Why I so Long still doe tarry, And ask why Here that I Live, and not marry? Thus I those Doe oppose; What man would be here, Slave to Thrall, If at all He could live free here?”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“If little labour, little are our gains:Man's fortunes are according to his pains.”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“A spark neglected makes a mighty fire.”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“Tears are the noble language of eyes, and when true love of words is destitute. The eye by tears speak, while the tongue is mute.”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“A SWEET disorder in the dressKindles in clothes a wantonness :A lawn about the shoulders thrownInto a fine distraction :An erring lace which here and thereEnthrals the crimson stomacher :A cuff neglectful, and therebyRibbons to flow confusedly :A winning wave (deserving note)In the tempestuous petticoat :A careless shoe-string, in whose tieI see a wild civility :Do more bewitch me than when artIs too precise in every part.”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“Here we are all, by day; by night, we're hurledBy dreams, each one, into a several world.”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“Love is a circle that doth restless moveIn the same sweet eternity of love.”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,Old Time is still a-flying;And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying.The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he’s a-getting,The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he is to setting.That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer;But being spent, the worse, and worst Times still succeed the former.Then be not coy, but use your time, And while you may, go marry;For having lost but once your prime, You may for ever tarry.- To the Virgins, To Make much of Time”
Robert Herrick
Read more
“Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score; then to that twenty, add a hundred more; a thousand to that hundred: so kiss on, to make that thousand up a million. treble that million, and when that is done, let's kiss afresh, as when we first begun!”
Robert Herrick
Read more