His Wish to God

By Robert Herrick 1591–1674 Robert Herrick

I would to God, that mine old age might have

Before my last, but here a living grave;

Some one poor almshouse, there to lie, or stir,

Ghost-like, as in my meaner sepulchre;

A little piggin, and a pipkin by,

To hold things fitting my necessity,

Which, rightly us'd, both in their time and place,

Might me excite to fore, and after, grace.

Thy cross, my Christ, fix'd 'fore mine eyes should be,

Not to adore that, but to worship Thee.

So here the remnant of my days I'd spend,

Reading Thy bible, and my book; so end.

Biography

Almost forgotten in the eighteenth century, and in the nineteenth century alternately applauded for his poetry’s lyricism and condemned for its “obscenities,” Robert Herrick is, in the latter half of the twentieth century, finally becoming recognized as one of the most accomplished nondramatic poets of his age. Long dismissed as merely a “minor poet” and, as a consequence, neglected or underestimated by scholars and critics, the . . .

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