Discovering poetry: Robert Herrick’s guide to girls

‘Cherrie-Ripe’

Cherrie-ripe, Ripe, Ripe, I cry,
Full and faire ones; come and buy:
If so be, you ask me where
They doe grow? I answer, There,
Where my Julia’s lips doe smile;
There’s the Land, or Cherry-Ile:
Whose Plantations fully show
All the yeere, where Cherries grow.

This short poem’s interest comes from its rapid changes of tone and speaker. These add complexity, surprise, and irony to what would otherwise be a cliché (‘my girlfriend’s lips look like cherries’).

Most popular

Owen Matthews

Why Russia should agree to a ceasefire – and five reasons Putin might not

The first four lines seem to belong to a busy street-scene. ‘Cherry-ripe’ was a call used by hawkers selling cherries in 17th century London. The first line tells us that the speaker of the poem is crying it. Is the poem being spoken by a street-trader (perhaps a young woman)?

In the third line a customer appears.