Robert Herrik 1591-1674 John Bartlett


1
Cherry ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry, Full and fair ones,—come and buy! If so be you ask me where They do grow, I answer, there, Where my Julia’s lips do smile,— There ’s the land, or cherry-isle.
Cherry Ripe.
2
Some asked me where the rubies grew, And nothing I did say; But with my finger pointed to The lips of Julia.
The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls.
3
Some asked how pearls did grow, and where? Then spoke I to my girl To part her lips, and showed them there The quarelets of pearl.
The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls.
4
A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
Delight in Disorder.
5
A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat; A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility,— Do more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part.
Delight in Disorder.
6
You say to me-wards your affection ’s strong; Pray love me little, so you love me long. 1
Love me Little, Love me Long.
7
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying, And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying. 2
To the Virgins to make much of Time.
8
Fall on me like a silent dew, Or like those maiden showers Which, by the peep of day, do strew A baptism o’er the flowers.
To Music, to becalm his Fever.
9
Fair daffadills, we weep to see You haste away so soon: As yet the early rising sun Has not attained his noon.
To Daffadills.
10
Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave. 3
Sorrows Succeed.



11
Her pretty feet, like snails, did creep A little out, and then, 4 As if they played at bo-peep, Did soon draw in again.
To Mistress Susanna Southwell.
12
Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee, The shooting-stars attend thee; And the elves also, Whose little eyes glow Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.
The Night Piece to Julia.
13
I saw a flie within a beade Of amber cleanly buried. 5
The Amber Bead.
14
Thus times do shift,—each thing his turn does hold; New things succeed, as former things grow old.
Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve.
15
Out-did the meat, out-did the frolick wine.
Ode for Ben Jonson.
16
Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; Nothing ’s so hard but search will find it out. 6
Seek and Find.
17
But ne’er the rose without the thorn. 7
The Rose.

Note 1.
See Marlowe, Quotation 10. [back]

Note 2.
Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds, before they be withered.—Wisdom of Solomon, ii. 8.

Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time.—Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene, book ii. canto xii. stanza 75. [back]

Note 3.
See Shakespeare, Hamlet, Quotation 196. [back]

Note 4.
Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out.
Sir John Suckling: Ballad upon a Wedding. [back]

Note 5.
See Bacon, Quotation 40. [back]

Note 6.
Nil tam difficilest quin quærendo investigari possiet (Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking).—Terence: Heautontimoroumenos, iv. 2, 8. [back]

Note 7.
Flower of all hue, and without thorn the rose.—John Milton: Paradise Lost, book iv. line 256. [back]

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