The Cavalier Poets: An Anthology

by Robert Herrick, Thomas Crofts (Editor), Thomas Carew

In the mid-seventeenth century, the poets associated with the court of Charles I of England, known as the Cavaliers, were strongly influenced by the classicism of Ben Jonson. Their verse, often concerned with the vagaries of love, is characteristically charming, witty, graceful, and elegant. This volume contains a rich sampling of more than 120 works by four Cavalier poets: Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace.
Included are such well-known gems as Herrick's "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time," ("Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"), Carew's "A Cruel Mistress," Suckling's "Why so pale and wan, fond lover?" and many more. Gathered in this inexpensive volume, this garland of memorable verse will delight any student of English literature or lover of fine poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Literature, Anthologies

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 22, 1996

About the author

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is best known for Hesperides, a book of poems. This includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", with the first line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may".

Librarian Note: There is more than one Robert Herrick in the GoodReads database. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undoubtedly the Silver Age of early modern English poetry (albeit with less authors of renown than its Latin counterpart), the cavalier poets offers less genius than it may claim to boast of. On the whole I their work difficult to parse and easily forgettable, save for some pithy lyrical examples. I will forever wonder, however, over how readily received was Herrick's "The Vine" and other...um...adventurous examples. For a poet that openly "delighted in disorder," I am sure he ruffled more than a lady's chemise with such a publication.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I enjoyed some of the poems in this collection from Robert Herrick and Thomas Carew, I found the verses of Sir John Suckling and Richard Lovelace to be almost impenetrable, given the somewhat archaic diction and the generally aristocratic subject matter.

[Hugolane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always loved Herrick, and bought this years ago for that reason. Having stereotyped the Cavalier Poets a bit based on Herrick's lighter verse, it was interesting to see they had something deeper going on as well, and even when writing about Celia there could be more going on than playful observations.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read an anthology of the Metaphysical poets I thought I'd read an anthology of some of their rivals, the Cavalier Poets. Doomed to be on the wrong side of the civil war their poetry is less opaque than their Metaphysical rivals. And, whisper it, probably not as good. Even if they do seem like a fun bunch of reprobates. Similar to the sort of men you imagine Charles II hanging about with once he gets the throne back.

This volume contains poems by Robert Herrick - best know for 'To Virgins, to Make Much of Time' - Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace. I think Lovelace is the best of them. He's probably most famous for 'To Althea, from Prison', which contains the famous lines: "Stone Walls do not a Prison make,/Nor Iron Bars a Cage..."

It is sometimes hard to understand some of the meaning here just because the language is, well, old. But nothing that a few footnotes wouldn't cure. It's also interesting to spot how pronunciation of certain words has changed because rhymes that worked in the 17th century don't work now.

Samuel Johnson disapproved of the Metaphysical poets because - to paraphrase - he thought they took pleasure in showing off how clever they were as opposed to writing good poetry. I'm not sure how he felt about the Cavaliers. Personally whilst I liked this anthology - particularly Richard Lovelace - I think Donne, Herbert and Vaughan are more my cup of tea.

But perhaps I hold the Cavalier poets politics against them. Fawning praise of a terrible King crops up a little too often for my taste. Not all these poems are of the roister doistering Lord Flashheart type that one might expect. There are religious poems here, but there's also a lot about love. And Herrick's two poems about 'Sack' (which is an alcoholic drink) are amongst the best in the collection even if they seem like the confessions of an alcoholic.

Nothing here is too explicit, but there are hints and euphemisms.

It is also only 90 odd pages so if you want a taster of a type of poet - and like a lot of literary labels do they really have much in common - that we don't read much anymore then this is a good intro.

[Dave H · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disappointment. The Cavalier Bros got a lot of mileage out of that one poem--and it's not that great of a poem, not close to Marvell. Herrick and Carew are simply poor. Suckling and Lovelace are much better, though they suffer from a lack of talent and skill and artistic sensibility -- a lot of moralizing, criticizing, forced rhyme, shallow sentiment and none of them are up to the challenge. There are good moments, lines here and there, the gentlemanly nostalgia and praise for the country house (like a sterilized pastoral).

I went back to Sir Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey to compare, wondering, were those cats also poor? Are the Cavalier Bros as poor as it seems? And yes, Wyatt and Surrey are a good shot better--to their credit they had the fortune or wisdom of directly imitating Petrarch, and that helps.

In the end, Herrick is an ass. Scholarly interest aside, the Cavalier Bros are not worth one's time beyond the two or three poems and even so, one may have better things to do.

[Sean]

Had a hard time with the other guys, and was surprised to enjoy the Herrick as much as I did. Two that stood out were Herrick's opposing poems "His Request to Julia" and "Delight in Disorder."

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the money a good introductory read to this group of poets.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cavaliers are great lyric poets. I'm not as much a fan of some of their longer poems, but they are masters of the lyric. What the Cavaliers tend to do really well is write poetry that is subtly risque, not overtly obscene (in the way some Restoration poetry is), but naughty enough to be good fun while still being subtle.
Robert Herrick: https://youtu.be/nw9LgGtnE8o
Thomas Carew: https://youtu.be/HqniUW_O7KU
Sir John Suckling: https://youtu.be/41RDxd1fCAk
Richard Lovelace: https://youtu.be/Grey4Z60GMQ

[Rhonda Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not as impressed with this book of poetry as I probably should be. Much of it is a little too pansy-bland for my taste. Some of the forced rhyme schemes are a bit nauseating.