Robert Herrick Quotes

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". Wikipedia  

✵ 24. August 1591 – 1674
Robert Herrick photo

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Hesperides
Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick: 34   quotes 2   likes

Famous Robert Herrick Quotes

Robert Herrick Quotes about love

“You say to me-wards your affection's strong;
Pray love me little, so you love me long.”

"Love Me Little, Love Me Long". Compare: "Love me little, love me long", Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, Act iv; "Me love you long time", 2 Live Crew, "Me So Horny" (sampled from the Stanley Kubrick film, Full Metal Jacket).
Hesperides (1648)

“Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be,
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.”

" To Anthea, st. 1 http://www.bartleby.com/106/96.html".
Hesperides (1648)

Robert Herrick Quotes about time

“Then while time serves, and we are but decaying.
Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a Maying.”

"Corinna's Going a Maying" http://books.google.com/books?id=2epaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Then+while+time+serves+and+we+are+but+decaying+come+my+Corinna+come+let's+goe+a+maying%22&pg=PA123#v=onepage.
Hesperides (1648)

“Thus times do shift, each thing his turn does hold;
New things succeed, as former things grow old.”

"Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve".
Hesperides (1648)

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.”

"To the Virgins to Make Much of Time". Compare: "Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time", Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book ii. canto xii. stanza 75. ; "Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds, before they be withered", Wisdom of Solomon, ii. 8.
Hesperides (1648)
Context: Gather ye rosebuds 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's to setting.

Robert Herrick Quotes

“I saw a flie within a beade
Of amber cleanly buried.”

"The Amber Bead" (published c. 1648). Compare: "Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb", Francis Bacon, Historia Vitæ et Mortis; Sylva Sylvarum, Cent. i. Exper. 100.
Hesperides (1648)

“Night makes no difference 'twixt the Priest and Clerk;
Joan as my Lady is as good i' the dark.”

"No Difference i' th' Dark".
Hesperides (1648)

“Get up, sweet Slug-a-bed, and see
The dew bespangling herb and tree.”

"Corinna's Going A-Maying".
Hesperides (1648)

“Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave.”

"Sorrows Succeed". Compare: "One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, So fast they follow", William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 7.
Hesperides (1648)

“Tis sin,
Nay, profanation to keep in.”

"Corinna's Going A-Maying".
Hesperides (1648)

“Some asked me where the rubies grew,
And nothing I did say;
But with my finger pointed to
The lips of Julia.”

"The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls".
Hesperides (1648)

“Before man's fall the rose was born,
St. Ambrose says, without the thorn;
But for man's fault then was the thorn
Without the fragrant rose-bud born; But ne'er the rose without the thorn.”

"The Rose" (published c. 1648). Compare: "Flower of all hue, and without thorn the rose", John Milton, Paradise Lost, book iv. line 256.; "Every rose has it's thorn", Poison, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".
Hesperides (1648)

“Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt;
Nothing's so hard but search will find it out.”

"Seek and Find". Compare: "Nil tam difficilest quin quærendo investigari possiet" (transalted as "Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking"), Terence, Heautontimoroumenos, iv. 2, 8.
Hesperides (1648)

“A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.”

"Delight in Disorder".
Hesperides (1648)

“Bid me despair, and I'll despair,
Under that cypress tree;
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E'en Death, to die for thee.”

" To Anthea, st. 5 http://www.bartleby.com/106/96.html".
Hesperides (1648)

“Her pretty feet, like snails, did creep
A little out, and then,
As if they playèd at bo-peep,
Did soon draw in again.”

"To Mistress Susanna Southwell". Compare: "Her feet beneath her petticoat / Like little mice stole in and out", Sir John Suckling, "Ballad upon a Wedding".
Hesperides (1648)

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