A Lyric to Mirth

While the milder fates consent,

Let's enjoy our merriment :

Drink, and dance, and pipe, and play ;

Kiss our dollies night and day :

Crowned with clusters of the vine,

Let us sit, and quaff our wine.

Call on Bacchus, chant his praise ;

Shake the thyrse,* and bite the bays :

Rouse Anacreon from the dead,

And return him drunk to bed :

Sing o'er Horace, for ere long

Death will come and mar the song :

Then shall Wilson and Gotiere**

Never sing or play more here.

thyrse - a cluster of flowers

**Wilson--Dr. John Wilson--singer, composer,

one of King Charles' musicians (1594-1673).

Gotiere--Jacques Gouter--a French musician at the

court of Charles I.

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick, (baptized August 24, 1591, London, England—died October 1674, Dean Prior, Devonshire), English cleric and poet, the most original of the “sons of Ben [Jonson],” who revived the spirit of the ancient classic lyric. He is best remembered for the line “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” and he is counted among the Cavalier poets. However, having refused to subscribe to The Solemn League and Covenant, he was ejected from Devonshire in 1647. He then returned to London publishing his religious poems Noble Numbers (1647), and Hesperides (1648). He was distinguished as a lyric poet, and some of his love songs, for example, 'To Anthea' and 'Gather Ye Rose-buds' are considered exceptional . In 1660 he was reinstated at Dean Prior where he lived for the remainder of his life. He wrote no more poems after 1648, he died in 1674 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard at Dean Prior.

More poems from same author

Anthea's Retractation A Ring Presented to Julia Another to the Maids Canticle To Apollo Chop-Cherry

A Lyric to Mirth

More poems from same author

Subscribe to our newsletter.