Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English poet, the finest lyricist among the followers of Ben Jonson. The son of a London goldsmith, he was apprenticed to his uncle in the trade before going to Cambridge, took holy orders and served as chaplain on Buckingham's expedition to the Isle of Ré. In 1629 he became vicar of Dean Prior in Devon, where he wrote most of his poems; ejected by Parliament in 1647, he published Hesperides and Noble Numbers in 1648 and was restored in 1662. His short poems on love, flowers, country festivals and the brevity of life were little read until the nineteenth century.