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Lyric Poem · Childhood

To His Saviour, a Child;a Present, by a Child

by Robert Herrick

Go, pretty child, and bear this flower

Unto thy little Saviour;

And tell him, by that bud now blown,

He is the Rose of Sharon known.

When thou hast said so, stick it there

Upon his bib or stomacher;

And tell him, for good handsel too,

That thou hast brought a whistle new,

Made of a clean straight oaten reed,

To charm his cries at time of need;

Tell him, for coral, thou hast none,

But if thou hadst, he should have one;

But poor thou art, and known to be

Even as moneyless as he.

Lastly, if thou canst win a kiss

From those melifluous lips of his; —

Then never take a second on,

To spoil the first impression.

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Quick facts

Poem
To His Saviour, a Child;a Present, by a Child
Poet
Robert Herrick
Length
18 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Childhood, Nature, Love

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
18 lines · one 18-line stanza
Line length
Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).

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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
PoetryDBTo His Saviour, a Child;a Present, by a Child 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 0eca6cc3ef904539
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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