‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may… ’
In this episode we speak to Dr Ruth Connolly about the life and work of Robert Herrick (1591–1674), best known as a poet but also a clergyman in Devon at a turbulent time. We talk about Herrick’s life in Devon as vicar of Dean Prior, his ejection from his living during the Civil War period and return at the Restoration, his giant poetry collection Hesperides, and the sheer joy of reading Herrick.
Ruth is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Newcastle University and is the co-editor of The Complete Poetry of Robert Herrick along with Tom Cain (OUP, 2013). Ruth has also published on other aspects of seventeenth-century literature including Cavalier poetry and early modern women’s writing. She is currently writing a book on the body in seventeenth-century poetry and is working with Tom Cain on a major new edition of the poetry of Ben Jonson.