Readiness.

The readiness of doing doth express
No other but the doer's willingness.

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is known for his book of poems, "Hesperides," which includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time." His works are noted for their clarity, simplicity, and musical quality. Herrick was also a vicar of Dean Prior in Devon, despite being ejected during the English Civil War and later reinstated.

Robert Herrick

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Perseverance.

Hast thou begun an act? ne'er then give o'er:
No man despairs to do what's done before.

Robert Herrick

Rest.

On with thy work, though thou be'st hardly press'd:
Labour is held up by the hope of rest.

Robert Herrick

Delay.

Break off delay, since we but read of one
That ever prospered by cunctation.

Robert Herrick

Fear.

Man must do well out of a good intent;
Not for the servile fear of punishment.

Robert Herrick

When He Would Have His Verses Read

In sober mornings do thou not rehearse
The holy incantation of a verse;
But when that men have both well drunk, and fed,
Let my enchantments then be sung, or read.
When laurel spurts i' th' fire, and when the hearth
Smiles to itself, and gilds the roof with mirth;
When up the thyrse is raised, and when the sound
Of sacred orgies flies: "A round, a round;"
When the rose reigns, and locks with ointments shine,
Let rigid Cato read these lines of mine.

Robert Herrick

Repletion.

Physicians say repletion springs
More from the sweet than sour things.

Robert Herrick