Robert Herrick

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets of our literature. Robert Herrick was born in London in 1591 and went to St. John's College, Cambridge. He became a Cavalier poet before being ordained in 1623. Charles I gave him the living of Dean Prior in 1629 where he wrote some of his best work including Hesperides, published in 1648. He died in 1674.

Stephen Romer was born in 1957 and educated at Cambridge. Since 1981 he has lived in France, now in the Loire Valley, where he teaches English literature at Tours University. He has been three times Visiting Professor in French at Colgate University (NY). The author of four collections of poetry, the latest being Yellow Studio (2008), he also edited Twentieth-Century French Poems for Faber (2002). More recently he has co-edited Into the Deep Street: Seven Modern French Poets (Anvil 2009).