The person lives twice who lives the first life well.

Herrick’s line suggests that a life lived fully—ethically, joyfully, and with mindful attention—yields a kind of “second life” in addition to mere duration. The doubling can be read as (1) intensified experience in the present (a richer inner life that makes time feel enlarged), and/or (2) an afterlife of reputation and remembrance: those who live well continue to “live” in the minds and stories of others. In Herrick’s poetic world, where carpe diem themes often urge readers to value fleeting time, the aphorism frames quality of living as a multiplier of life itself, not simply an ornament to it.