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Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

When he would have his Verses Read


              1In sober mornings do thou not rehearse
              2The holy incantation of a verse;
              3But when that men have both well drunk, and fed,
              4Let my enchantments then be sung, or read.
              5When laurel spurts i' th' fire, and when the hearth
              6Smiles to itself, and gilds the roof with mirth;
              7When up the thyrse is raised, and when the sound
              8Of sacred orgies flies: "A round, a round;"
              9When the rose reigns, and locks with ointments shine,
            10Let rigid Cato read these lines of mine.

Notes

7] thyrse. "A javelin twin'd with ivy'' (Herrick's note).

8] sacred orgies: "songs to Bacchus'' (Herrick's note).

10] rigid Cato: Marcus Cato (234-139 B.C.) Roman statesman, called "the Censor," and famous for the moral severity of his character and conduct.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Robert Herrick, Hesperides (London: for John Williams and F. Eglesfield to be sold by Thomas Hunt, 1648), of which a section called "His Noble Numbers: or, his Pious Pieces" has a separate title-page dated 1647. Facs. edn. Menston: Scolar, 1969. PR 3512 H4 1648A ROBA
First publication date: 1648
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 3RP 1.196.
Recent editing: 4:2002/2/6

Form: Heroic Couplets

Other poems by Robert Herrick

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