her youngest boy and daughter with her but sent
Robert and three of his brothers to live with their
uncle William Herrick. The young Robert may
have attended the Westminster School as a boy
or the Merchant Taylors’ School. There is no
definitive record, but an early poem, written
around 1612 to his brother Thomas, shows the
young poet as a well-educated youth. At sixteen
he probably became a goldsmith and jeweler’s
apprentice to his cousin, William Pearson. In
1613, after serving for five years, Herrick left
the apprenticeship and entered St. John’s Col-
lege, Cambridge, receiving his BA in 1617 and
his MA in 1620. In London, where Herrick was
supposed to be studying law, he became associ-
ated with a group of lyric poets who frequented
taverns, honed their craft, and called themselves
the Tribe of Ben because of their admiration for
the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson (1572–1637).
Herrick, in fact, wrote a number of lyrics cele-
brating and even sanctifying Jonson.
Politically, Herrick supported King Charles I
and opposed his Puritan and parliamentary adver-
saries. Herrick was ordained deacon and priest in
the Church of England in April 1623 and became
chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham in 1627. Two
years later, after returning from an unsuccessful
military expedition with Buckingham, Herrick
was made vicar of the parish of Dean Prior in
Devon. With the beginning, in 1642, of the Eng-
lish Civil War, which set Parliament against king
and Presbyterian Christianity against the more
hierarchical and established Anglican Church,
Herrick lost his position. He then lived in West-
minster, in London, dependent upon his friends
and family for support. In London, Herrick
occupied himself with his poetry. He issued a
collection of verse,Hesperides; or, The Works
Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick(the
only collection published in his lifetime), in 1648,
dedicating the volume to the Prince of Wales,
who became Charles II after the restoration of
the monarchy with the fall of the Commonwealth
in 1660. Herrick regained the vicarage in Devon
in 1662, as appointed by King Charles II. Herrick
remained vicar of Dean Prior until his death in
October 1674—the exact date is not known—at
the age of eighty-three. Herrick never married.
He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Dean
Prior churchyard; a commemorative tablet and a
stained glass window are inscribed to him in the
church.
Poem Text
Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee;
The shooting stars attend thee;
And the elves also,
Whose little eyes glow
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee. 5
No will-o’-the-wisp mis-light thee;
Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee;
But on, on thy way,
Not making a stay,
Since ghost there’s none to affright thee. 10
Let not the dark thee cumber;
What though the moon does slumber?
The stars of the night
Will lend thee their light,
Like tapers clear without number. 15
Then, Julia, let me woo thee,
Thus, thus to come unto me;
And when I shall meet
Thy silv’ry feet,
My soul I’ll pour into thee. 20
Poem Summary
Stanza 1
The first of the four stanzas, each with five lines,
begins deceptively with a reference to a woman’s
Robert Herrick(International Portrait Gallery)
The Night Piece: To Julia
