Poem of the Day: ‘To Daffodils’

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) has what may seem a wonderfully bifurcated poetic output. His carpe-diem poems include such commonly anthologized Cavalier poetry as “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and “Corinna’s Going A-Maying.” And then his religious poetry contains such work as “To Keep a True Lent” and “To Find God,” both of which have been Poems of the Day over the past year here in The New York Sun.Perhaps it’s time we offered a Herrick poem that might bridge the gap. “To Daffodils” appears in Herrick’s only book of poetry, the 1648 volume whose title warns of his work’s two sides: “Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane & Divine.” It’s two stanzas match each other’s meter: four lines of ballad meter (a four-foot line followed by a three-foot line), and then a curious four lines of monometer and trimeter (one-foot lines followed by three-foot lines), ending with another two lines of ballad meter — so the stanzas both have the shape 4/3/4/3/1/3/1/3/4/3.Quite what the poet intended with that metrical showmanship is hard to say, but the result is a poem that urges the daffodils to make much of time. The day is fleeting for both flowers and people, for “the hasting day” will run “But to the even-song” — “And, having pray’d together, we / Will go with you along.”To Daffodilsby Robert HerrickFair 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.___________________________________________ With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of the North Carolina poet Sally Thomas, the Sun’s associate poetry editor. Tied to the day, or the season, or just individual taste, the poems are drawn from the deep traditions of English verse: the great work of the past, together with the living poets who keep those traditions alive. The goal is always to show that poetry can still serve as a delight to the ear, an instruction to the mind, and a tonic for the soul.

Poem of the Day: ‘To Daffodils’

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