Sex and Power

Herrick is writing explicitly about sex here, but the poem’s themes do not end there. Instead, much of the poem is a dance of power, a movement between the contradictory desires of freedom and restraint.

All of these desires are at play in Herrick’s narrator. Initially, his fantasy presents as one about having power. The poem starts by centering the phallus, which is traditionally associated with masculine power and authority. This phallus, transformed into a vine, is able to gain control over Lucia. It “enthralls” her (4). The word “enthrall” is usually used to mean “to bewitch or to enchant,” most often in the sense of “making someone fall in love.” However, the etymology of the world is from the early Norse word “thrall” – or “slave.” So to “enthrall” someone is, at least in a metaphorical sense, to enslave them.

This sense of...