Corinna's Going A Maying

Robert Herrick was born somewhere around the 24th of August in the year 1591, in Cheapside, England to Julia Stone and Nicholas Herrick. His father died when he was only a year old, so his prime father figure in his life was his uncle, a skilled goldsmith and jeweler to the King. At sixteen, Herrick took an apprenticeship with his uncle but ended it after only six years and attended college. After graduating from college, Herrick became a member of the Sons of Ben, a group that was centered upon the works of Ben Jonson. This was where Herricks first real love for literature began. Robert Herrick is well known for writing style, and in his earlier works, the frequent mentionings of the female body and references towards lovemaking. In later years, Herrick’s style shifted from these racier subjects to a more spiritual manner …show more content…
One of Herrick’s favorite literary devices to use in his work is in tone. In Corinna's Going A Maying, the tone is one of excitement, urgent, and a little of exasperation. There is also a bit of irony surrounding this poem, as the speaker is not trying to get his sweetheart into bed. Instead he is trying to get her out of bed to enjoy the festivities of the May festival, as the title “A-Maying” suggests. At first, the speaker incessantly demands Corinna get up, saying “Get up, get up for shame” (ln 1). Corrina is still asleep and the speaker is like an alarm clock, unrelenting in his exasperation for his Corinna. In the fifth line, “Get up, sweet slug-a-bed and see”, an alliteration is in the three s-word’s (“sweet”, “slug”, “see”) punctuating the urgent tone. The repetition of the “Get up” creates the urgent tone the speaker professes. Although the speaker is urgent, he is mostly just excited. He tries to soften his demanding tone by using a “sweet” word, even though he finishes it up with “slug-a-bed”. The speaker isn’t mad, he’s just overly

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