To Daffodils

“To Daffodils,” written by Robert Herrick, was first published in 1648 in Herrick’s sole poetry collection Hesperides: Or, the Works Both Humane & Divine. Considered to be a minor poet throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Herrick has only really been recognized for his literary achievements during the late-20th century. Nearly four centuries after the publication of his poetry collection, Herrick is finally achieving the status of an accomplished, pivotal 17th-century poet.

The poem “To Daffodils” is written in the form of an apostrophe—a direct address to an object or absent individual. In the case of “To Daffodils,” Herrick’s speaker addresses the eponymous flowers. Herrick’s collection was published in the midst of the English Civil War, a time of turmoil and uncertainty. Herrick experienced this political and religious turbulence firsthand when he was removed from his clerical position due to his political inclinations. These events can be used as a framework through which to read “To Daffodils. In “To Daffodils,” Herrick writes about the fleeting quality of life and about how life inevitably withers away. Yet, in the throes of this sense of change and fading, there can be peace and acceptance. There can be solace in the notion that time is humans’ only constant, and that a new dawn will inevitably come.

Poet Biography

Robert Herrick was born in London on August 24, 1591. His father, Nicholas Herrick, was a jeweler and goldsmith. When Robert was just over a year old, his father committed suicide by falling from a window. Left without the head of their family, Herrick’s mother Julian took care of two of his siblings while Robert and two older brothers were tended to by their uncles. From age 16 to 22, Robert was an apprentice for his uncle William, a goldsmith. The apprenticeship was supposed to last ten years, but Herrick only served six of them (“Robert Herrick.” Poets.org).

After apprenticing with his uncle, Herrick enrolled at Saint John’s College in Cambridge and graduated at the age of 26. Following his education at Cambridge, Herrick began his religious career. When he was 32, he became ordained and served as a “domestic chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham on his ill-fated expedition to La Rochelle”—a siege in the Anglo-French War in 1627 (“Robert Herrick.” Westminster Abbey).

In the next stage of his religious career, Herrick became the Vicar of Dean Prior in Devon in 1629. Herrick served in this vicarage until his death in 1674, though his time in this role was interrupted between 1647 and 1662. During the English Civil War and due to Herrick’s Royalist ideology, he was removed from his religious office (“Robert Herrick.” Poets.org, https://poets.org/poet/robert-herrick). Over 142 other clergymen from Devonshire were also removed from their clerical positions during this period (“Robert Herrick.” Poetry Foundation).

It is contested whether or not Herrick married. Some sources state he never married, while some acknowledge a marriage to Lettice Yarde in 1639. However, “literary gossips have revelled [sic] in speculations about the identities of the 14 ‘mistresses’ (in the 17th century, inamoratas, lady friends, or merely admired acquaintances) to whom he addressed 158 poems” (“Robert Herrick.” Poetry Foundation).

Herrick’s authorship of over 1200 poems remains uncontested. His publications include a collection of religious verse, His Noble Numbers, published in 1647. Included in the same volume as His Noble Numbers is another collection of poems published in 1648 titled Hesperides; or, the Works Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq. Herrick was an admirer of Ben Jonson’s work and is counted among the “Sons of Ben”—men who adhered to Jonson’s theory and style of writing. Herrick even wrote five poems about Jonson. Herrick imitated and sought inspiration from the Greek and Roman classics as well, his works ranging from pastorals to declarations of love, religious musings, and even bawdry (“Robert Herrick.” Poets.org).

Poem Text

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon;

As yet the early-rising sun

Has not attain'd his noon.

Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the even-song;

And, having pray'd together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,

We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,

As you, or anything.

We die

As your hours do, and dry

Away,

Like to the summer's rain;

Or as the pearls of morning's dew,

Ne'er to be found again.

Herrick, Robert. “To Daffodils.” 1648, Poetry Foundation.

Summary

Herrick’s poem begins with the speaker directly addressing the daffodils, who are only partly the subject of his verses. The speaker conveys the sadness when flowers fade away experienced by all of humanity. The speaker likens the daffodils’ wilting to a sun losing its momentum before reaching the noon position in the sky. They beg the daffodils to stay a little while longer until evening when the rest of mankind will go with them on their end-of-life journey once they have all prayed together.

In the final stanza of the poem, the speaker equates the situation of the daffodils with that of humans. Just like the flowers, the youth and vigor humans experience is short-lived. Just like the daffodils, humans age, change, and pass away. The prime of life is soon over and death quickly arrives. The speaker parallels this sense of things passing away with a summer rainstorm drying up, or morning dew evaporating.