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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CONNUNII FLORES, OR THE WELL-WISHES AT WEDDINGS by ROBERT HERRICK

Poet Analysis

First Line: FROM THE TEMPLE TO YOUR HOME
Last Line: THE RAVENS YEARES, GO HENCE MORE RIPE THEN OLD.
Subject(s): MARRIAGE; WEDDINGS; HUSBANDS; WIVES;
Chorus Sacerdotum.

1. From the Temple to your home
May a thousand blessings come!
And a sweet concurring stream
Of all joyes, to joyn with them.

Chorus Juvenum.

2. Happy day
Make no long stay
Here
In thy Sphere;
But give thy place to night,
That she,
As Thee,
May be
Partaker of this sight.
And since it was thy care
To see the Younglings wed;
'Tis fit that Night, the Paire,
Sho'd see safe brought to Bed.

Chorus Senum.

3. Go to your banquet then, but use delight,
So as to rise still with an appetite.
Love is a thing most nice; and must be fed
To such a height; but never surfeited.
What is beyond the mean is ever ill:
'Tis best to feed Love; but not over-fill:
Go then discreetly to the Bed of pleasure;
And this remember, Vertue keepes the measure.

Chorus Virginum.

4. Luckie signes we have discri'd
To encourage on the Bride;
And to these we have espi'd,
Not a kissing Cupid flyes
Here about, but has his eyes,
To imply your Love is wise.

Chorus Pastorum.

5. Here we present a fleece
To make a peece
Of cloth;
Nor, Faire, must you be loth
Your Finger to apply
To huswiferie.
Then, then begin
To spin:
And (Sweetling) marke you, what a Web will come
Into your Chests, drawn by your painful Thumb.

Chorus Matronarum.

6. Set you to your Wheele, and wax
Rich, by the Ductile Wool and Flax.
Yarne is an Income; and the Huswives thread
The Larder fills with meat; the Bin with bread.

Chorus Senum.

7. Let wealth come in by comely thrift,
And not by any sordid shift:
'Tis haste
Makes waste;
Extreames have still their fault;
The softest Fire makes the sweetest Mault.
Who gripes too hard the dry and slip'rie sand,
Holds none at all, or little in his hand.

Chorus Virginum.

8. Goddesse of Pleasure, Youth and Peace,
Give them the blessing of encrease:
And thou Lucina, that do'st heare
The vowes of those, that children beare:
When as her Aprill houre drawes neare,
Be thou then propitious there.

Chorus Juvenum.

9. Farre hence be all speech, that may anger move:
Sweet words must nourish soft and gentle Love.

Chorus omnium.

10. Live in the Love of Doves, and having told
The Ravens yeares, go hence more Ripe then old.



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