Poetry: Corinna's Going a-Maying

Summary
"Corinna's Going a-Maying" is a buoyant lyric that invites Corinna to rise early and join the communal rites of May. The speaker urges her to leave the bed and the town behind and to participate in the seasonal procession and garlanding that celebrate renewal, fertility, and frivolity. The poem traces a short, lively morning outing through fields and hedgerows toward flowers, green boughs, and the shared pleasures of the countryside.
The voice is both intimate and public: affectionate counsel to a beloved that doubles as a summons into a larger, social festival. The poem climaxes in the joyful mingling of lovers and neighbors, with the speaker pressing the argument that youth and the ephemeral beauty of May must be seized before they fade.

Themes
The dominant theme is carpe diem, the exhortation to seize the moment. By aligning youthful desire with the sudden, brief abundance of spring, the poem argues that delay risks missing the season's delights. Time is not abstract but embodied in sunlight, blossoms, and the urgency of an early morning call.
Pastoral celebration and sensuality are woven together. Nature is idealized as a stage for human pleasure, where ritual, posies, garlands, and communal outings, provides permission and context for amorous encounters. Underlying this convivial surface is a tension between social expectation and personal longing, making the poem as much about belonging and ritual as about private erotic impulse.

Imagery and Language
The language is sensuous and immediate, filled with visual and tactile images of flowers, green leaves, morning dew, and ringing bells. Herrick favors short, vivid phrases that mimic the briskness of walking and the quick decisions of lovers, creating a rhythm that feels both conversational and incantatory. Images of garlands, posies, and the "May-bush" evoke traditional seasonal customs without heavy ethnographic detail, keeping the focus on delight.
Figurative touches are light but telling: the countryside becomes a theater of celebration, and everyday actions, rising early, choosing a flower, stealing a kiss, are elevated into symbols of youthful abundance. The diction moves easily between playful colloquialism and cultivated lyricism, which deepens the poem's charm and persuasive energy.

Form and Tone
The poem is a short lyric, compact and brisk, using direct address to create immediacy. Its cadences are jaunty rather than solemn, designed to coax rather than command. The tone oscillates between teasing and earnest, part courtship and part civic exhortation, so that the speaker's persuasive tactics feel like both loverly banter and communal encouragement.
Rhyme and meter are used to sustain momentum and to underline key images, but the overall effect is conversational music rather than rigid formal display. The poem's buoyant rhythms mirror the sunlit mobility of the May procession and the emotional lift of seasonal celebration.

Historical Context and Reception
Published in Hesperides (1648), the poem stands as a signature example of Herrick's approach to pastoral and Cavalier aesthetics: valuing pleasure, moderation, and the pleasures of rural custom. May-Day rites were widely celebrated in early modern England, and the poem locates personal desire within those communal rituals, making it both timely and timeless.
Anthologists have long favored the poem for its memorable opening summons and its deft intertwining of erotic impulse with seasonal festivity. Modern readers and critics often note its double edge, charming advocacy of pleasure and the gendered dynamics of persuasion, while still recognizing its energy, musicality, and enduring invitation to "seize the day" amid the brightness of spring.