of sin in the face of a consuming sense of desire
governs the rhetoric of ‘‘The Night Piece: To
Julia.’’ Unspoken though it is in the manifest
discourse of the poem, the latent drama or con-
flict in the poem is conveyed through the
imagery of the poem and, because the poem is a
poem of seduction, through the attempt to per-
suade Julia to consent to what must be a clandes-
tine nighttime meeting.
‘‘The Night Piece: To Julia’’ is a bagatelle, a
seeming trifle, a graceful and debonair lyric that
appears to be all surface, even if a highly deco-
rated surface carved with images of elves, shoot-
ing stars, glowworms, snakes, will-o’-the-wisps,
ghosts, and dainty, scurrying, silver feet. All its
content appears manifest, and its meaning
appears to be expressed without mediation by
symbol or metaphor. Those elves, shooting stars,
glowworms, snakes, will-o’-the-wisps, ghosts,
and silvery feet, after all, can be read as concrete,
nonsymbolic fixtures natural to the rhetorical
landscape of the poem and to the geography of
the night walk on which the poet is coaxing Julia
to set out. But they also suggest underlying
meanings for which they are only figures.
‘‘The Night Piece: To Julia’’ is a lover’s
attempt to persuade his lady, through assurances
of the physical safety of her journey, to visit him
at night. Harm, he assures her, will not befall
her, in large measure because of his poem, which
is not only an invitation to the lady but also a
spell, an invocation to aiding forces and an
injunction against interfering ones. Noteworthy,
and perhaps odd in such a poem of invitation—
indeed, of seduction—is the absence of any dec-
laration of the poet’s love for the lady or a cele-
bration of her virtues until the final three lines of
the poem. Rather than being a declaration
of love, a catalog of her charms, or a defense of
dalliance, the poem is an assurance to Julia that
night presents no obstacle to her coming to his
chambers. For that reason, satisfying the desires
associated with love should be quite easy and,
according to the poet, will present no danger.
Precisely that is why she ought to consent to
visit him.
In demonstration of the ease and safety of the
visit, the poet evokes the landscape of night and
subverts night’s characteristic properties: darkness
and unseen, lurking dangers. He summons glow-
worms, elves, and stars to guide her. He banishes
will-o’-the-wisps, snakes, and ghosts, assuring her
that they will not be present to harm her. All these
nocturnal phenomena that he conjures or banishes
can be read with symbolic as well as unmediatedWHAT
DO I READ
NEXT? The Diary of Samuel Pepys, by Samuel Pepys
(1633–1703), written between 1660 and
1669, is an honest and clear-eyed account
of daily life in seventeenth-century London,
focusing on the social, political, and cultural
manners and morals of the time.
‘‘The Ecstasy,’’ by John Donne (1572–1631),
first published in 1633, is a poem that
describes the emotional excitement of the
meeting of two lovers. The poem exhibits a
psychological complexity and imaginative
richness that exemplifies the difference
between metaphysical and cavalier poetry.
‘‘To His Coy Mistress,’’ by Andrew Marvell
(1621–1678), first printed in 1681, is a poem
of seduction that mixes the imagistic com-
plexity of metaphysical poetry with the idea
of making the most of the present moment.
The latter idea is representative of cavalier
poetry in general and Herrick’s verse in
particular.
A Masque of the Metamorphosed Gypsies,by
Ben Jonson (1572–1637), performed for
King James in 1621, is a courtier’s entertain-
ment devised for his sovereign. It is replete
with examples of Jonson’s lyrical vitality.AMBIGUITY ARISING FROM A SUPPRESSED
SENSE OF SIN IN THE FACE OF A CONSUMING SENSE OF
DESIRE GOVERNS THE RHETORIC OF ‘THE NIGHT PIECE:
TO JULIA.’’’The Night Piece: To Julia