Robert Herrick

Born in London, Robert Herrick (1591-1674) is best known for his poetry collection Hesperides, published in 1648. Herrick began an apprenticeship to become a goldsmith — his family’s business — but quit to pursue a degree at Cambridge. Though he wrote many love poems that celebrated the sensual pleasures of life, he never married and there is no evidence that he wrote these poems for actual women.