Observations placeholder
Robert Herrick - Hesperides - Gather ye rosebuds
Identifier
013253
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Robert Herrick was born August 1591 and died October 1674. He was a poet and a clergyman.
Born in Cheapside, London, Herrick was the seventh child and fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith, who fell out of a window when Robert was a year old. He attended St John's College, Cambridge and graduated in 1617. Herrick took holy orders in 1623, and became vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire.
He lost his position as vicar because of his Royalist sympathies and returned to live in Westminster, in London, depending on the charity of his friends and family. He spent some time preparing his lyric poems for publication, and had them printed in 1648 under the title Hesperides; or the Works both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick.
When King Charles II was restored to the throne, Herrick became the vicar of Dean Prior again in the summer of 1662 and lived there until his death in October 1674, at the age of 83. Herrick was a bachelor all his life.
A description of the experience
Robert Herrick - Hesperides [To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time]
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.