Herrick Analysis
One of the finest poems composed by Robert Herrick, "Corinna's Going A-Maying," assumes a theme of nature and man's interactions within nature, specifically May Day. This celebration was held in numerous cities and was the unofficial commencement of spring. The narrator's tone is one of great excitement and almost no worries, as he fervently encourages those who surround him to join in the festivities. Herrick combines religious and mythological elements with those of familiar English life to enhance the poem, while demonstrating his cognizance concerning May Day customs. Additionally, the author's use of imagery and consistent structure benefit the reader to obtain more from the poem and comprehend its true meaning. Evidence of Herrick's cultural knowledge in "Corinna's Going A-Maying" and ability to write such a work of art can be found in a criticism authored by George Walton Scott. Scott lauds this poem as "Herrick's finest and most sustained poem - perhaps his masterpiece" (Scott 122) and even remarks on Herrick's knowledge of the time-honored customs and traditional decorations most associated with May Day. Imagery and figures of speech play a dominant role in characterizing this poem. In the line "Again
Herrick's astute attention to minor details increases the quality of the poem. Wash, dress, be brief in praying/ Few beads are best when once we go a-Maying" (Herrick 669). The two religions of Paganism and Christianity collide in the second stanza, particularly in the line "Till you come forth. Specifically, lines sixty-five through sixty-eight speak of "the fate of all human-kind and all things transient" (125). st you come, some orient pearls unwept/ Come and receive them while the light/ Hangs on the dew locks of the night" (Herrick 669), Herrick uses a metaphor to compare gleaming pearls to drops of dew. Being an imaginary person, Herrick makes the most of apostrophe. With regards to organization and structure, the poem has a consistent rhyme scheme of end rhyme and consists of five fourteen-line stanzas. It is crucial for Herrick to incorporate all of these, and even some Christian references, to appeal to an eclectic audience. She moves from the Church of God to the Temple of Nature. Whereas the previous mentioning of dew and rain signified youth and immaturity, it now is "representing the vanishing of youth" and "takes on the vastness of dark waters in which all pleasure is eventually drowned" (125). The use of personification is also evident to a lesser degree when the author mentions the names of Aurora and Flora, both Italian goddesses who are supposed to exist without any tangible evidence. The most evident use of figurative language is indeed the whole poem, in which the narrator addresses "Corinna" and pleads with her to come to the May Day festivities. From the first line there appears a subtle mixture of three of the main strands that make up the body of the poem: the lines of Humanism, Classicism and Anglicanism" (Scott 123). When the rosary, a specific object very closely related to the Catholic religion, is described as "few beads are best when once we go a-maying" (669), Herrick is conveying the use of synecdoche.
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