Carpe Diem: Seize the Day!
One of the recurring motifs to be found throughout the poetry of Robert Herrick is an impassioned plea to recognize the value of life; his audience should not waste one single ,precious moment by doing nothing when there is simply too much beauty and majesty around us to ever have enough time to explore its riches. Although expressed in many different ways in many different poems, this philosophy of life is most succinctly and artistically encapsulated in one of Herrick’s most famous and beloved works: “Corinna's Going a-Maying” in which the title character must essentially be shame out of her bed to take party in May Day festivities with the reminder that time is fleeting and youth is short.
Passion is Ignited in the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Herrick moved easily back and forth between sacred and secular subjects in his poetry. Much of that which remains read today may perhaps seem shockingly erotic for man whose day at one time was conducting parish services for a congregation overweighted with Puritans. Or, perhaps, his earthier efforts confirm one’s suspicion that Herrick could not possibly have lasted very long among such neighbors. While there is genuine conflict between his poems honoring god and his poems truly breathtaking amount of verse honoring nipples, breasts and other quite specific body parts ultimately manage to integrate the sacred and the profane through recurring thematic imagery which constantly suggests that while love is stoke in the harsh glare of the bright sun reminding us we are alive and need to seize the day, the passion which fuels that love seems to have its origin in the dread and fear that arrives with the dark. While the darkness may provide proper shielding from prying eyes to free lovers to explore, it is also a constant reminder of the eternal darkness every lover is knows they are racing toward but try to pretend isn’t there.
A Celebration of the Ritual Festival
Throughout Herrick’s verse are lovingly constructed descriptions of people taking part in outdoor seasonal festivals and imagery that brings to mind one’s own memories of the feasts looked forward to, laid out and enjoyed as an anthropological bonding as much as hope for future bounty. It is not sheer coincidence that so many of the most common themes and motifs that Herrick returns to elsewhere all comes together so perfectly is that poem about a lazy girl named Corinna on the verge of a great tragedy: missing out annual festival that centers entirely around a pole and a joyous dance.
