Robert Herrick. 1591-1674.
Cherry ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones,—come and buy!
If so be you ask me where
They do grow, I answer, there,
Where my Julia's lips do smile,—
There 's the land, or cherry-isle.
Cherry Ripe.
Some asked me where the rubies grew,
And nothing I did say;
But with my finger pointed to
The lips of Julia.
The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls.
Some asked how pearls did grow, and where?
Then spoke I to my girl
To part her lips, and showed them there
The quarelets of pearl.
The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls.
A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
Delight in Disorder.
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat;
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility,—
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
Delight in Disorder.
[202]
You say to me-wards your affection 's strong;
Pray love me little, so you love me long.[202:1]
Love me Little, Love me Long.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.[202:2]
To the Virgins to make much of Time.
Fall on me like a silent dew,
Or like those maiden showers
Which, by the peep of day, do strew
A baptism o'er the flowers.
To Music, to becalm his Fever.
Fair daffadills, we weep to see
You haste away so soon:
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
To Daffadills.
Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave.[202:3]
Sorrows Succeed.
Her pretty feet, like snails, did creep
A little out, and then,[202:4]
As if they played at bo-peep,
Did soon draw in again.
To Mistress Susanna Southwell.
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.
The Night Piece to Julia.
[203]
I saw a flie within a beade
Of amber cleanly buried.[203:1]
The Amber Bead.
Thus times do shift,—each thing his turn does hold;
New things succeed, as former things grow old.
Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve.
Out-did the meat, out-did the frolick wine.
Ode for Ben Jonson.
Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt;
Nothing 's so hard but search will find it out.[203:2]
Seek and Find.
But ne'er the rose without the thorn.[203:3]
The Rose.
Footnotes
[202:1] See Marlowe, page 41.
[202:2] Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds, before they be withered.—Wisdom of Solomon, ii. 8.
Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time.—Spenser: The Faerie Queene, book ii. canto xii. stanza 75.
[202:3] See Shakespeare, page 143.
[202:4]
Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out.
Suckling: Ballad upon a Wedding.
[203:1] See Bacon, page 168.
[203:2] Nil tam difficilest quin quærendo investigari possiet (Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking).—Terence: Heautontimoroumenos, iv. 2, 8.
[203:3] Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.—Milton: Paradise Lost, book iv. line 256.