Herrick, Vaughn, and Herbert

Reading the poetry of Herrick, Vaughn, and Herbert, I was struck most by how mellifluous they are in comparison to other writers. Although the poetry of Donne, Bacon, Jonson, and other writers we have discussed no doubt displays uncommon skill, the focus with their poems is much more idealistic, didactic, and religious compared with the poetry of Herrick, Vaughn, and Herbert. The language of the latter poets is much more accessible as well. I was most able to engage with the poetry of Herrick, and truly enjoyed many of his poems.

As I’ve said already, what most struck me about Herrick’s work is the words, the simply gorgeous imagery that he uses in almost every poem. Lines such as “The dew bespangling herb and tree” (Corinna’s Going A-Maying), and “The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun” (To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time), and the entirety of the poem “Upon the Nipples of Julia’s Breast” display a mastery of use of stunning imagery that I have not previously seen. His work brings to mind the sonnets of Shakespeare, which similarly use imagery and beautifully written verse (Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? comes to mind). It seems fitting that Herrick titled his book Hesperides, implying that his poems are golden apples. But his poems are not merely pretty words – they are spirited, full of a playful, forward moving energy that I did not find in Donne’s poems, which although similar thematically, I feel are more restless in nature.

I felt that Herrick’s poems were most similar to Donne’s. Both poets are very blunt, very daring, and they address similar themes. For example, both Herrick and Donne write a great deal about women: Upon the Loss of His Mistresses, The Vine, Delight in Disorder, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, etc. have women as the prime focus, and objectify them in the way that Donne does in poems such as Elegy 19 and The Flea. The Vine especially reminded me of Donne’s Elegy 19, although again, the imagery in The Vine is much more delicate and much prettier than Donne’s. Another instance of similarity in daring I found between The Bad Season Makes the Poet Sad and Donne’s Sonnet 10, where they are both speaking judgmentally of powers greater than themselves. Of course, Herrick’s bold statement is political where Donne’s is a defiance of Death, but I felt the tone was similar. Even the structure of the two poems is somewhat comparable. The Bad Season ends with words of enlightenment and exaltation, with a brief mention of death: “…head with Roses crowned, And once more yet (ere I am laid out dead) Knock at a star with my exalted head.” Donne’s Sonnet 10 ends with the idea that despite Death, eventually he will attain salvation (comparable to enlightenment and exaltation).

A few last observations: besides these thematic similarities with Donne, I found that the Carpe Dium theme seemed quite pervasive (besides the focus on women). In Corinna’s Going A-Maying, Herrick says “Our life is short, and our days run/As fast away as does the sun.” To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time is an excellent example of this theme as well – the whole poem is about how time is fleeting, and to make use of youth and time while one still has it. Although this might be a bit of a generalization, I also felt that Herrick’s poetry was almost free from idealism. For example, Bacon’s poetry is rife with idealizations of virtues: "On Truth," “Of Marriage and Single Life,” and “Of Superstition” show this plainly. Where Bacon expounds on the virtue of being truthful, or the preference of atheism over superstition, Herrick simply describes things as they are, without judgment even if they are imperfect (such as in Delight in Disarray: a “disorder in the dress” is called sweet).