TOM CLARK: Maytime (Rites of Spring): Robert Herrick: Ten Poems

There's always one! Four little girls in the shadow of the Ballymun tower blocks. | by National Library of Ireland on The Commons

There's always one! Four little girls the shadow of the Ballymun tower blocks [Dublin].: photo by Elinor or Reginald Wiltshire, 1969 (Wiltshire Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland)

Robert Herrick: Corinna's Going a Maying

Get up, get up for shame, the Blooming Morne

Upon her wings presents the god unshorne.

See how Aurora throwes her faire

Fresh-quilted colours through the aire:

Get up, sweet-Slug-a-bed, and see

The Dew-bespangling Herbe and Tree.

Each Flower has wept, and bow'd toward the East,

Above an houre since; yet you not drest,

Nay! not so much as out of bed?

When all the Birds have Mattens seyd,

And sung their thankful Hymnes: 'tis sin,

Nay, profanation to keep in,

When as a thousand Virgins on this day,

Spring, sooner than the Lark, to fetch in May.

Rise; and put on your Foliage, and be seene

To come forth, like the Spring-time, fresh and greene;

And sweet as Flora. Take no care

For Jewels for your Gowne, or Haire:

Feare not; the leaves will strew

Gemms in abundance upon you:

Besides, the childhood of the Day has kept,

Against you come, some Orient Pearls unwept:

Come, and receive them while the light

Hangs on the Dew-locks of the night:

And Titan on the Eastern hill

Retires himselfe, or else stands still

Till you come forth. Wash, dresse, be briefe in praying:

Few Beads are best, when once we goe a Maying.

Come, my Corinna, come; and comming, marke

How each field turns a street; each street a Parke

Made green, and trimm'd with trees: see how

Devotion gives each House a Bough,

Or Branch: Each Porch, each doore, ere this,

An Arke a Tabernacle is

Made up of white-thorn neatly enterwove;

As if here were those cooler shades of love.

Can such delights be in the street,

And open fields, and we not see't?

Come, we'll abroad; and let's obay

The Proclamation made for May:

And sin no more, as we have done, by staying;

But my Corinna, come, let's goe a Maying.

There's not a budding Boy, or Girle, this day,

But is got up, and gone to bring in May.

A deale of Youth, ere this, is come

Back, and with White-thorn laden home.

Some have dispatcht their Cakes and Creame,

Before that we have left to dreame:

And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted Troth,

And chose their Priest, ere we can cast off sloth:

Many a green-gown has been given;

Many a kisse, both odde and even:

Many a glance too has been sent

From out the eye, Loves Firmament:

Many a jest told of the Keyes betraying

This night, and Locks pickt, yet w'are not a Maying.

Come, let us goe, while we are in our prime;

And take the harmlesse follie of the time.

We shall grow old apace, and die

Before we know our liberty.

Our life is short; and our dayes run

As fast away as do's the Sunne:

And as a vapour, or a drop of raine

Once lost, can ne'r be found againe:

So when or you or I are made

A fable, song, or fleeting shade;

All love, all liking, all delight

Lies drown'd with us in endlesse night.

Then while time serves, and we are but decaying;

Come, my Corinna, come, let's goe a Maying.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Corinna's going a Maying, from Hesperides, 1648

Bhainsrorgarh girl [Rajasthan, India]: photo by Rick Elkins, 29 April 2017

Robert Herrick: To the Maides to walke abroad

Come, sit we under yonder Tree,

Where merry as the Maids we'l be.
And as on Primroses we sit,
We'l venter, if we can, at wit;

If not, at Draw-gloves we will play;
So spend some minutes of the day:
Or else spin out the thread of sands,
Playing at Questions and Commands:
Or tell what strange Tricks Love can do,
By quickly making one of two.
Thus we will sit and talke; but tell
No cruell truths of Philomell,
Or Phillis, whom hard Fate forc'd on,
To kill her selfe for Demophon.
But fables we'l relate; how Jove
Put on all shapes to get a Love:
As now a Satyr, then a Swan;
A Bull but then; and now a man.
Next, we will act, how young men wooe;
And sigh, and kiss, as Lovers do:
And talk of Brides; & who shall make
That wedding-smock, this Bridal-Cake;
That Dress, this Sprig, that Leaf, this Vine,
That smooth and silken Columbine.
This done, we'l draw lots, who shall buy
And guild the Baies and Rosemary;
What Posies for our wedding rings;
What Gloves we'l give, and Ribandings;
And smiling at our selves, decree
Who then the joyning Priest shall be;
What short sweet Prayers shall be said,
And how the Posset shall be made
With Cream of Lillies (not of Kine)
And Maiden's-blush, for spiced wine.
Thus, having talkt, we'l next commend
A kiss to each; and so we'l end.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): To the Maids to walke abroad, from Hesperides, 1648

Untitled [Hank, hen, LA]: photo by Andrew Murr, 29 April 2017

Santa Fe, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, April 2017

spring on the columbia [Astoria, Oregon]: photo by jody miller, 26 April 2017

just before the rain, havana: photo by jody miller, 1 April 2017

Robert Herrick: Her Legs

Slice, from Tom Clark's Once mimeo series, 1965: cover by Joe Brainard, 1965

Fain would I kiss my Julia's dainty Leg,
Which is as white and hair-less as an egge.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Her Legs, from Hesperides, 1648

[Untitled]: photo by hajdu tamas, 30 April 2017

Robert Herrick: Silks

Women working on new silk (detail): Master Chang Hsüan, beginning of 12th century (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

When as in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then (me thinks) how sweetly flowes
That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave Vibration each way free;
O how that glittering taketh me!

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Upon Juiia's Clothes, from Hesperides, 1648

Berlin, Neukölln: photo by Lyd.ium, April 2017

Robert Herrick: The comming of good luck

[Songkhla, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 30 April 2017

So Good-luck came, and on my roofe did light,
Like noyse-lesse Snow; or as the dew of night:
Not all at once, but gently, as the trees
Are, by the Sun-beams, tickel'd by degrees.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): The comming of good luck from Hesperides, 1648

Chiang Rai, Thailand: photo by Job Jetichwan Chaowadee, 16 February 2017

Robert Herrick: Upon one Lillie, who marryed with a maid call'd Rose

Aronskelk / Arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica): photo by Calllie-Pop, 31 August 2005

What times of sweetnesse this faire day fore-shows, 
When as the Lilly marries with the Rose! 
What next is lookt for? but we all sho'd see 
To spring from these a sweet Posterity.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Upon one Lillie, who marryed with a maid call'd Rose, from Hesperides, 1648

Aronskelk / Arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica): photo by Calllie-Pop, 31 August 2005

Amber Flush Rose, Bagatelle Rose Garden, Paris: photo by Georges Seguin, 1 June 2007

Robert Herrick: To Groves

Paper Bark tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia), Australian native, Sao Paulo, Brazil: photo by mauroguarandi, 29 November 2009

Yee silent shades, whose each tree here
Some Relique of a Saint doth weare:
Who for some sweet-hearts sake, did prove
The fire, and martyrdome of love.
Here is the Legend of those Saints
That di'd for love; and their complaints:
Their wounded hearts; and names we find
Encarv'd upon the Leaves and Rind.
Give way, give way to me, who come
Scorch't with the selfe-same martyrdome:
And have deserv'd as much (Love knowes)
As to be canoniz'd 'mongst those,
Whose deeds, and deaths here written are
Within your Greenie-Kalendar:
By all those Virgins Fillets hung
Upon your Boughs, and Requiems sung
For Saints and Soules departed hence,
(Here honour'd still with Frankincense)
By all those teares that have been shed,
As a Drink-offering, to the dead:
By all those True-love-knots, that be
With Motto's carv'd on every tree,
By sweet S. Phillis; pity me:
By deare S. Iphis; and the rest,
Of all those other Saints now blest;
Me, me, forsaken, here admit
Among your Mirtles to be writ:
That my poore name may have the glory
To live remembred in your story.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): To Groves, from Hesperides, 1648

Paperbark Tree: photo by Joel Bramley, 5 April 2013

Paper Bark Tree, Point Loma, California: photo by Lee Edwin Coursey, 13 April 2008

Paperbark Maple, Mendocino Botanical Gardens: photo by jidarius, 13 May 2010

Paper Bark Birch: photo by Aubrey Guymn, 16 December 2005

Robert Herrick: Memorials of the Obscure

Image, Source: digital file from original

Grave on the high plains, Dawson County, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, March 1940 (Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress)

Upon a Child. An Epitaph

But borne, and like a short Delight,
I glided by my Parents sight.
That done, the harder Fates deny'd
My longer stay, and so I dy'd.

Upon a child

Here a pretty Baby lies
Sung asleep with Lullabies:
Pray be silent, and not stirre
Th'easie earth that covers her.

Upon Prew his Maid

In this little urne is laid
Prewdence Baldwin (once my maid)
From whose happy spark here let
Spring the purple Violet.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Upon a Child. An Epitaph; Upon a Child; Upon Prew his Maid, from Hesperides, 1648

Grave in the cemetery at Santa Rita, New Mexico. Santa Rita is a copper mining town, inhabitants mostly Mexican: photo by Russell Lee, April 1940 (Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Decorated graves in cemetery at New Roads, Louisiana on All Saints' Day, with chickens eating the flowers: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress)

Maytime

Sawmill 2 [Larvik]: photo by astrid westvang, 17 April 2017

Arirang Mass Games, Pyongyang | by Stefan Schinning

Arirang Mass games, Pyongyang. The Grand Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performance Arirang, held in the Rungrado May Day Stadium, in Pyongyang, North Korea.: photo by Stefan Schinning, 8 September 2012

Woodland: image by Tadeusz Deregowski, 16 May 2013

Entering Woodland | by tadeusz deręgowski

Entering Woodland: image by Tadeusz Deregowski, 16 May 2013

The wanderer over Brazil (the red kite) | by tadeusz deręgowski

The wanderer over Brazil, the red kite: image by Tadeusz Deregowski, 11 May 2013

The clouds and the sky, Beiramar | by tadeusz deręgowski

The clouds and the sky, Belramar: image by Tadeusz Deregowski, 22 November 2013

May Day, Pedra Branca: children, dogs, kites | by tadeusz deręgowski

May Day, Pedras Blancas: children, dogs, kites: image by Tadeusz Deregowski, 1 May 2013

As promised, comrades. May Day picnic ready! @NC_DSA @DemSocialists: image via mazel tov cocktail @existentialpink, 30 April 2017

Competing cakes here at the @NC_DSA May Day picnic #eattherich: image via mazel tov cocktail @existentialpink, 30 April 2017

Going to smash capitalism today. #eattherich #mayday #maydaypicnic: image via NCPiedmont DSA @NC_DSA, 30 April 2017

The poster for #antifa #MayDay 2017 in Copenhagen, Denmark: image via Capulcu b9AcE @b9AcE, 30 April 2017

TOM CLARK

Monday, 1 May 2017

Maytime (Rites of Spring): Robert Herrick: Ten Poems

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