Robert Herrick

In one of his many epigrams, poet Robert Herrick (1591-1674) wrote, "Let others to the Printing Presse Run fast, / Since after death comes glory, Ile not haste." That glory was two centuries in coming. Not until the 1960s was Herrick shown to be far more than a "minor" poet and member of Ben Jonson's "Tribe of Ben." Recent criticism illuminates him as an extraordinary and original talent: he is among the most self-reflexive of the English poets; he arranges his collected works, Hesperides, according to a subtle and complex design; and he is an artist with a deep and well-formed vision of life…