A Ring Presented to Julia

Julia, I bring

To thee this Ring.

Made for thy finger fit;

To shew by this,

That our love is

(Or sho'd be) like to it.

Close though it be,

The joynt is free:

So when Love's yoke is on,

It must not gall,

Or fret at all

With hard oppression.

But it must play

Still either way;

And be, too, such a yoke,

As not too wide,

To over-slide;

Or be so strait to choak.

So we, who beare,

The beame, must reare

Our selves to such a height:

As that the stay

Of either may

Create the burden light.

And as this round

Is no where found

To flaw, or else to sever:

So let our love

As endless prove;

And pure as Gold for ever.

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick, (baptized August 24, 1591, London, England—died October 1674, Dean Prior, Devonshire), English cleric and poet, the most original of the “sons of Ben [Jonson],” who revived the spirit of the ancient classic lyric. He is best remembered for the line “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” and he is counted among the Cavalier poets. However, having refused to subscribe to The Solemn League and Covenant, he was ejected from Devonshire in 1647. He then returned to London publishing his religious poems Noble Numbers (1647), and Hesperides (1648). He was distinguished as a lyric poet, and some of his love songs, for example, 'To Anthea' and 'Gather Ye Rose-buds' are considered exceptional . In 1660 he was reinstated at Dean Prior where he lived for the remainder of his life. He wrote no more poems after 1648, he died in 1674 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard at Dean Prior.

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A Ring Presented to Julia

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