WIST Quotations

Herrick, Robert -- “Another [To His Booke],” Hesperides, # 4 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 17 May 2024 14:48:25 +0000

To read my book the virgin shy
May blush while Brutus standeth by,
But when he’s gone, read through what’s writ,
And never stain a cheek for it.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“Another [To His Booke],” Hesperides, # 4 (1648)
(Source)

A translation (if not so labeled) of the concluding lines of Martial ep. 11.6. Brutus stands as a paragon of moral rectitude.

Herrick, Robert -- “Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve,” Hesperides, # 892 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:59:07 +0000

Thus times do shift, each thing his turn does hold;
New things succeed, as former things grow old.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve,” Hesperides, # 892 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “Clothes Do But Cheat and Cozen Us,” Hesperides, # 402 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 21:35:03 +0000

Away with silks, away with lawn,
I’ll have no scenes or curtains drawn;
Give me my mistress as she is,
Dress’d in her nak’d simplicities;
For as my heart e’en so mine eye
Is won with flesh, not drapery.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“Clothes Do But Cheat and Cozen Us,” Hesperides, # 402 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “God’s Time Must End Our Trouble,” Hesperides, # 252 (1648)

Dave — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:21:58 +0000

God doth not promise here to man that He
Will free him quickly from his misery;
But in His own time, and when He thinks fit,
Then He will give a happy end to it.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“God’s Time Must End Our Trouble,” Hesperides, # 252 (1648)

Herrick, Robert -- “Gold Before Goodness,” Hesperides, # 328 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 16:30:55 +0000

How rich a man is all desire to know;
But none inquires if good he be or no.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“Gold Before Goodness,” Hesperides, # 328 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “Kings and Tyrants,” Hesperides, # 861 (1648)

Dave — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:12:43 +0000

’Twixt kings and tyrants there’s this difference known:
Kings seek their subjects’ good; tyrants their own.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“Kings and Tyrants,” Hesperides, # 861 (1648)
(Source)

See Aristotle.

Herrick, Robert -- “No Difference i’ th’ Dark,” Hesperides, # 864 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 01:11:25 +0000

Night makes no difference ‘twixt the priest and clerk;
Joan as my lady is as good i’ th’ dark.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“No Difference i’ th’ Dark,” Hesperides, # 864 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “Sorrows Succeed,” Hesperides, # 48 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 24 May 2024 14:45:17 +0000

When one is past, another care we have:
Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“Sorrows Succeed,” Hesperides, # 48 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “The Argument of His Book,” Hesperides, # 1 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 10 May 2024 16:55:21 +0000

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers:
Of April, May, of June, and July flowers.
I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes.
I write of youth, of love, and have access
By these to sing of cleanly wantonness;
I sing of dews, of rains, and piece by piece
Of balm, of oil, of spice and ambergris;
I sing of times trans-shifting, and I write
How roses first came red and lilies white;
I write of groves, of twilights, and I sing
The Court of Mab, and of the Fairy King;
I write of hell; I sing (and ever shall)
Of heaven, and hope to have it after all.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“The Argument of His Book,” Hesperides, # 1 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “The Bell-Man,” Hesperides, # 299 (1648)

Dave — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:15:38 +0000

From noise of Scare-fires rest ye free,
From Murders Benedicite.
From all mischances, they may fright
Your pleasing slumbers in the night:
Mercie secure ye all, and keep
The Goblins from ye, while ye sleep.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“The Bell-Man,” Hesperides, # 299 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “The End,” Hesperides, # 309 (1648)

Dave — Fri, 31 May 2024 15:17:35 +0000

If well thou hast begun, go on fore-right
It is the end that crowns us, not the fight.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“The End,” Hesperides, # 309 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- “To Anthea,” Hesperides, # 74 (1648)

Dave — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:48:14 +0000

Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score;
Then to that twenty, add a hundred more:
A thousand to that hundred: so kiss on,
To make that thousand up a million.
Treble that million, and when that is done,
Let’s kiss afresh, as when we first begun.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“To Anthea,” Hesperides, # 74 (1648)
(Source)

See Catullus.

Herrick, Robert -- “To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,” Hesperides, # 208 (1648)

Dave — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:01:55 +0000

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,” Hesperides, # 208 (1648)
(Source)

See Horace and Schulman.

Herrick, Robert -- “Upon Julia’s Clothes,” Hesperides, # 779 (1648)

Dave — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:15:07 +0000

When as in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free;
Oh how that glittering taketh me!

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“Upon Julia’s Clothes,” Hesperides, # 779 (1648)
(Source)

Herrick, Robert -- Poem (1648), “No Pains, No Gains,” Hesperides, # 752

Dave — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 18:00:12 +0000

If little labour, little are our gains;
Man’s fortunes are according to his pains.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
Poem (1648), “No Pains, No Gains,” Hesperides, # 752
(Source)

See Breton (1577)