The following version of the poem was used to create this guide: Herrick, Robert. "Delight in Disorder." Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47285/delight-in-disorder.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Robert Herrick was born in Cheapside, London. He was part of a large family. His father died when he was less than a year old, and little is known about his early life. He was apprenticed as a goldsmith to his uncle, but left the business to attend university. He was ordained in 1623, but lost his parish when he refused to take an oath related to the English Civil War. He regained his parish after the Restoration of the English monarchy, and he practiced until his death at the age of 83. Herrick never married, and it is thought that the women in his poems are mostly fictional. Nearly all his work, like this poem, reflects themes of rejecting the status quo in favor of the pleasures of life.