How funny: I was literally in the middle of comparing Herrick’s poem to Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” when I saw someone’s tweet linking this post! (Talking of comparison, Herrick’s reference to coyness occurs only in the last stanza; Marvell’s in the second line!).
It’s one of those poems where its lightness, and seeming effortlessness, belies its artistry. It was only after a few readings, for instance, I noticed how perfectly the spondaic “Old time” & “go marry” - at the beginning & at the end of line 2 of the first & last stanzas - complement each other.
And the 3rd stanza, with its chiasmus of superlatives and comparatives, until we fall over the edge of the sole enjambment in the poem, where the final line “succeed[s] the former” - it’s a perfectly placed flourish!
Lovely choice. I had not been aware that this poem was the source of "Gather ye rose-buds while ye may." But you coyly ascribed simply to "the poet" the paraphrasing of the lines "Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure: Married in haste, we may repent at leisure." I had to look up that one. (What would we do without Google?) The author of that good advice was William Congreve.
Ah, I didn't know that! I've heard "Marry in haste, repent at leisure" my entire life and not once thought about where it came from! Thank you for this correction.
How funny: I was literally in the middle of comparing Herrick’s poem to Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” when I saw someone’s tweet linking this post! (Talking of comparison, Herrick’s reference to coyness occurs only in the last stanza; Marvell’s in the second line!).
It’s one of those poems where its lightness, and seeming effortlessness, belies its artistry. It was only after a few readings, for instance, I noticed how perfectly the spondaic “Old time” & “go marry” - at the beginning & at the end of line 2 of the first & last stanzas - complement each other.
And the 3rd stanza, with its chiasmus of superlatives and comparatives, until we fall over the edge of the sole enjambment in the poem, where the final line “succeed[s] the former” - it’s a perfectly placed flourish!
Lovely choice. I had not been aware that this poem was the source of "Gather ye rose-buds while ye may." But you coyly ascribed simply to "the poet" the paraphrasing of the lines "Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure: Married in haste, we may repent at leisure." I had to look up that one. (What would we do without Google?) The author of that good advice was William Congreve.
Ah, I didn't know that! I've heard "Marry in haste, repent at leisure" my entire life and not once thought about where it came from! Thank you for this correction.
Wonderful good advice, now to be one who followed it, well that is another tale.
We called this the "Ring by Spring" poem in my English class. :D
Ah, one of the first poems I ever memorized. Just because I liked the sound of it, but also because I thought it was a little cheeky.