Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English lyric poet and Anglican cleric, celebrated for his polished, songlike verse. Born in London, he was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, and later became vicar of Dean Prior in Devon. Herrick is best known for *Hesperides* (1648), a collection of short poems on love, nature, ceremony, and everyday pleasures, and for the companion volume *His Noble Numbers* (1648) of religious lyrics. His most famous poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” urges readers to seize fleeting youth. After the Restoration, he returned to his Devon parish, where he died in 1674.