Then be not coy, but use your
time,
And
while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your
prime,
You
may for ever tarry.”
Herrick only published one book. He called it The Hesperides, or the works both Human and Divine. The “divine” part although published in the same book, has a separate name, being called his Noble Numbers. The Hesperides, from whom he took the name of his book, were lovely maidens who dwelt in a beautiful garden far away on the verge of the ocean. The maidens sang beautifully, so Herrick took their name for his book, for it might well be that the songs they sang were such as his. This garden of the Hesperides was sometimes thought to be the same as the fabled island of Atlantis of which we have already heard. And it was here that, guarded by a dreadful dragon, grew the golden apples which Earth gave to Hera on her marriage with Zeus.
The Hesperides is a collection of more than a thousand short poems, a few of which you have already read in this chapter. They are not connected with each other, but tell of all manner of things.
Herrick was a religious poet too, and here is something that he wrote for children in his Noble Numbers. It is called To his Saviour, a Child: A Present by a Child.
“Go, pretty child, and
bear this flower
Unto thy little Saviour;
And tell him, by that bud
now blown,
He is the Rose of Sharon known.
When thou hast said so, stick
it there
Upon his bib or stomacher;
And tell Him, for good hansel
too,
That thou hast brought a whistle
new,
Made of a clear, straight
oaten reed,
To charm his cries at time
of need.
Tell Him, for coral, thou
hast none,
But if thou hadst, He should
have one;
But poor thou art, and known
to be
Even as moneyless as He.
Lastly, if thou canst win
a kiss
From those mellifluous lips
of His;
Then never take a second one,
To spoil the first impression.”
Herrick wrote also several graces for children. Here is one:—
“What God gives, and
what we take
’Tis a gift for Christ
His sake:
Be the meal of beans and peas,
God be thanked for those and
these:
Have we flesh, or have we
fish,
All are fragments from His
dish.
He His Church save, and the
king;
And our peace here, like a
Spring,
Make it ever flourishing.”
While Herrick lived his quiet, dull life and wrote poetry in the depths of Devonshire, the country was being torn asunder and tossed from horror to horror by the great Civil War. Men took sides and fought for Parliament or for King. Year by year the quarrel grew. What was begun at Edgehill ended at Naseby where the King’s cause was utterly lost. Then, although Herrick took no part in the fighting, he suffered with the vanquished, for