The Poetry of Robert Herrick

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

This idea of making the most of one's life and not wasting time may seem like a modern concept in our multi-tasking world, but it has been a common theme in poetry for centuries.

Poets used this concept in poetry about love or death and, sometimes, in poems that combined the two subjects to show that people ought not to let time slip away from them — they should seize on the moment to live life to the fullest.

Robert Herrick was a seventeenth-century poet who used the carpe diem theme in much of his poetry. The speaker in many of his poems continually tries to woo a young woman.

While Herrick wrote poems commemorating family members and political figures of the era, he is best known for his love poetry that often stressed the fast pace of life and how easily time could slip away from a couple if they dallied too long and did not act on their attraction to each other.

Despite Herrick's repeated use of the themes of love and carpe diem in his poetry, he never married. Herrick even commented on his decision to remain a bachelor in one of his poems, saying he would not take a wife because she would "crucify" him.

Herrick may have enjoyed the theme of love, but he saved it for his poems!

As you read Life of Robert Herrick to learn more, answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.

• What happened to Herrick's father when Robert was only a year old?
• What was Herrick's initial occupation?
• Which writer became Herrick's mentor?
• What profession did Herrick enter in 1623?
• Why did Herrick lose his job for 13 years?

Now that you have learned about Herrick's life and poetry, move on to the Got It? section to read two of Herrick's well-known poems and watch a video of a performance of a Herrick poem.