Robert Herrick

Born in London and baptized in August 1591, he became one of the best-known English lyric poets of the 17th century. He studied at Cambridge, was ordained in the Church of England, and is often linked with the “Sons of Ben,” a circle of writers influenced by Ben Jonson.

He is most famous for Hesperides (1648), a collection packed with short poems about love, beauty, ritual, nature, friendship, and the fleetingness of life. Readers still return to his work for its memorable carpe diem spirit, musical language, and vivid sense of the pleasures and fragility of ordinary human life.

Herrick also served for many years as a clergyman in Dean Prior, Devon. That mix of courtly polish and country experience helped shape poetry that could be elegant, earthy, devotional, and warmly observant all at once. He died in 1674 and remains one of the clearest, most charming lyric voices of his age.