The Country Gentleman: Country Life and Customs in the Poetry of Robert Herrick
There is much to be said for a simple, rural life in which one delights in the pleasures of working the land, keeping time-established traditions, and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation. This lifestyle was very well-articulated by the Southern Agrarians in early twentieth-century America, but several other notable literary artists have also dedicated much of their work to the topic. Robert Herrick, a contemporary of John Donne and George Hebert, is one such figure, “the earliest English poet to see the picturesqueness of country life.”[1]
Indeed, Herrick’s affinity for country living is manifested in his shining portrayals of rural life, his descriptions of country holidays and traditions, and his beautiful depictions of nature. Herrick himself wrote, “I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers; / Of April, May, of June, and July flowers. / I sing of Maypoles, hock-carts, wassails, [and] wakes,” topics that glory in a simple, rural existence.[2] Reading poetry like Herrick’s can help Christians reflect on what is good and beautiful and true and increase our appreciation for excellence in the arts.
Herrick’s Life
Herrick’s background explains his frequent use of country themes in his poetry. Though Herrick was originally from London, he was not unfamiliar with the country in his early years of life. Herrick’s first poem, in fact, was entitled “A Country Life,” composed for his brother who left London to farm in Leicestershire.[3] Herrick also gained exposure to country life through his close relationship with his uncle William, a rich man who owned a large country manor and made sure that rural customs and holiday festivals were practiced in his household.[4]
Herrick’s life in the English countryside began when he was assigned, at his request, to the vicarage of Dean Prior in rural Devonshire in 1630.[5] Marchette Chute writes, “When Robert Herrick became a vicar in Devon, he travelled the width of England, away from court and city and into a country as alien and self-contained as another land.”[6] It is no wonder that such a drastic change of lifestyle caused Herrick to sometimes feel that his simple life was quite tiresome. In fact, Herrick wrote, “More discontents I never had / Since I was born, than here; / Where I have been, and still am sad, / In this dull Devonshire.”[7]
In spite of these feelings, though, this new, simple life greatly influenced Herrick’s art. A developing interest in old country traditions allowed Herrick to become “reconciled to his fate,” and he grew to love country traditions, speech, and life.[8] His poems are “children of the West, brought forth, if not conceived in the soft, sweet air of Devonshire.”[9]
Herrick spent seventeen years in Dean Prior, where his poetic “muse” took pleasure both in staying at home and in visiting nearby villages. But, in 1647, the Puritans removed the Anglican, Loyalist Herrick from his vicarage. He returned to London, for his muse was “ambitious to try her skill at court.”[10] During this time Herrick’s collection of poetry the Hesperides was published, a work “full of all [the] pleasant things of spring and summer, full of young love, happy nature, and the joy of mere existence.”[11]
Herrick lived in London until the Restoration of the English monarchy, and this momentous event allowed Herrick to petition to return to Dean Prior.[12] Perhaps, then, Devon was not quite so “dull” after all. His request was granted, and he returned to his Dean Prior home as if he had never left it.[13] He spent the remainder of life in Devon, content with his pets and his faithful servant, Prudence.[14]
Herrick’s Poetry
Quite a large portion of Herrick’s poetic themes concern the beauty of the English countryside and the simple pleasures of rural life, contrasting them with the more demanding public life in London. For example, Herrick writes, “Sweet country life, to such unknown, / Whose lives are others’, not their own! / But, serving courts and cities, be / Less happy, less enjoying thee.”[15] Indeed, according to Gosse, “No one has ever know better than Herrick how to seize without effort and yet to absolute perfection, the pretty points of modern pastoral life.” Furthermore, he writes, “It may be said that Herrick made himself an Arcadian world, in the centre of which the ordinary daily life of a country parish went contentedly on, surrounded by an imaginary land of pastoral peace and plenty, such as England could hardly have been in the eyes of any other mortal.”[16]
Herrick further expounds on this ideal by often describing country customs and holiday traditions in his poetry. These customs play a vital role in Herrick’s work. In his portrayals of these celebrations, rural traditions “insure basic subsistence and well-being,” and, instead of favoring a modern city lifestyle, these poems link prosperity to the keeping of old traditions.[17] Herrick himself celebrated these holidays in Devon, hosting holiday gatherings at Dean Prior and composing several poems to be used in the celebrations.[18]
“The Hock-Cart, or Harvest Home” is an excellent example of Herrick’s country tradition poetry. These verses both describe the Harvest Home holiday and also provide readers with a glimpse into day-to-day rural life.[19] Herrick begins the poem with a summons to the workers to come and enjoy the fruit of their labors: “Come sons of summer, by whose toil / We are the lords of wine and oil; / By whose tough labors and rough hands / We rip up first, the reap our lands.”[20] The procession of laborers and revelers follow the cart, loaded with the last harvest of the season, to the house of the lord of manor where a bountiful feast is prepared for all of the community in celebration of their hard work and their prosperous harvest.
May Day, the official Anglican feast celebrating the apostles Philip and James the Less, is another holiday frequently depicted in Herrick’s poetry. In one of his most famous poems, “Corinna’s Going A-Maying,” Herrick describes the practices associated with the May Day holiday as he encourages Corinna to get out of bed and to participate in the festivities. Not only is “the picture given here of the slim boys and girls in green gowns going out singing into to the corridors of blossoming white thorn, when the morning sun is radiant in all its ‘fresh-quilted colours’ . . . ravishing,” but the admonition for Corinna to “seize the day” makes the poem especially poignant.[21]
Herrick’s theme of rural life can also be found in his descriptions of the beauties of nature. According to John Press, “[Herrick] loves . . . the glittering beauty of the countryside, and, in particular, the teeming fertility of the earth.”[22] Some of Herrick’s poetry provides the reader with descriptions of nature’s beauty while some of the poetry employs particular aspects of nature as metaphor. “To Daffodils,” for example, illustrates the ephemeral nature of life and encourages the reader to make the most of the time. “We have short time to stay, as you,” writes Herrick. “We have as short a spring; / As quick a growth to meet decay, / As you, or any thing.”[23] This description could have easily sprung from Herrick’s observation of the natural processes of life and death in his rural country setting. Similarly, in other poems, like, “‘To Blossoms’ and ‘The Mad Maids Song,’ the blossoms, the flowers, the fruits, and the dew bring with them a reminder of death.”[24] Like “Corinna’s Going A-Maying,” these poems highlight the need to live each day well.
Conclusion
Thomas Masan observes, “Herrick’s art . . . immerse[s] his reader in the process of discovery and permit[s] him to recognize first hand the power of poetic art to transform the commonplace into something extraordinary and imperishable.”[25] This is exactly what Herrick accomplished through his magnificent descriptions of nature, rural customs, and the pleasure of the agrarian lifestyle. Christians, who serve a God Who also uses the simple things to bring glory to Himself and joy to His people, will certainly benefit from reading Herrick’s delightful work. Indeed, through reading Herrick’s poetry, the reader is transported to the quaint, English countryside where he, too, is invited to partake in the joys of a simple, traditional lifestyle.
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[1] Edmund Gosse, Seventeenth Century Studies (New York: AMS Press, 1972), 141.
[2] Robert Herrick, “The Argument of His Book” in Seventeenth-Century British Poetry, John P. Rumrich and Gregory Chaplin, eds. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2006), 181.
[3] Stanley J. Kuntz and Howard Haycraft, eds., British Authors Before 1800, s.v. “Robert Herrick” (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1952), 263; Marchette Chute, Two Gentle Men: The Lives of George Herbert and Robert Herrick (New York: E.P. Dutton an Co., 1959), 168.
[4] Chute, 164-165.
[5] Ibid, 201; Thomas Masan, “Robert Herrick,” in Critical Survey of Poetry: English Language Series Revised vol. 3, Frank N. Magill, ed. (Pasadena, CA: Salem, 1992), 1488.
[6] Chute, 203; A vicar is an Anglican parish priest.
[7] Herrick, “Discontent in Devon” in Seventeenth Century British Poetry, 184.
[8] Kuntz and Haycraft, 263; Jonathan F.S. Post, “Robert Herrick: A Minority Report,” George Herbert Journal 14 (Fall, 1990), 1.
[9] Gosse, 137.
[10] Ibid., 138.
[11] Gosse, 138.
[12] Masan, 1488.
[13] Chute, 266.
[14] Kuntz and Haycraft, 264.
[15] Herrick, “The Country Life, To the Honored Mr. Endymion Porter, Groom of the Bedchamber to his Majesty” in Seventeenth-Century British Poetry, 210.
[16] Gosse, 141, 143-44.
[17] Leah S. Marcus, The Politics of Mirth: Jonson, Herrick, Milton, Marvell, and the Defense of Old Holiday Pastimes (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986), 143, 145.
[18] Gosse, 135; Leah S. Marcus, “Robert Herrick,” in The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry—Donne to Marvell, Thomas N. Corns, ed. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 176.
[19] Roger B. Rollin, Robert Herrick (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1966), 63.
[20] Herrick, “The Hock-Cart, or Harvest Home: To the Right Honorable Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland,” in Seventeenth-Century British Poetry, 197.
[21] Gosse, 141.
[22] John Press, “Robert Herrick,” in British Writers, vol. II, Ian Scott-Kilbert, ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979), 110.
[23] Herrick, “To Daffodils, “in Seventeenth-Century British Poetry, 204.
[24] Press, 112.
[25] Masan, 1492.
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