Lyric Poem · Love

The Primrose

by Robert Herrick

Reading room

1Ask me why I send you here

2This sweet Infanta of the year?

3Ask me why I send to you

4This Primrose, thus bepearl'd with dew?

5I will whisper to your ears, —

6The sweets of love are mixt with tears.

7Ask me why this flower does show

8So yellow-green, and sickly too?

9Ask me why the stalk is weak

10And bending, yet it doth not break?

11I will answer, — these discover

12What fainting hopes are in a lover.

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“The Primrose” by Robert Herrick — quilloak.com/poems/the-primrose-herrick

Quick facts

Poem: The Primrose
Poet: Robert Herrick
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Nature, Sad

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 12 lines · 2 sestets
Line length: Lines run 7-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Robert Herrick1591–1674
Source record: PoetryDBThe Primrose by robert-herrick, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 94fec4aa24a82724…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love Nature Sad

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