Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Form and Meter
It's always time for a constipation joke, Shmoopers (poopers?): this poem ain't regular. No, seriously, buy this poem a five-stanza prune juice because its meter is all over the place. Each stanza...
Speaker
Young and lustful, this guy might already be in a relationship with Corinna. In any case, he's super anxious to get her outside and into the May Day scene. But he's also a philosophical dude. May D...
Setting
It's the first day of May and Corinna's in bed, probably sleeping off a long night of A.P. Bio cramming. It's not clear whether the speaker is inside her bedroom or standing outside her window, but...
Sound Check
Your mom trying to wake you up for school: "Time to get up. Time to get up! TIME TO GET UP!" Notice a pattern? Whenever someone really wants you to do something, they have a tendency to tell you ov...
What's Up With the Title?
Like many of Herrick's poems, which have scandalous titles like "On the Nipples of Julia's Breast," this one's super specific. We've got a specific woman's name, a specific activity, and a declarat...
Calling Card
For a dude who wrote over 2500 poems, from "The Bride-Cake" to "Ill Government," it's hard to boil things down to a single calling card. This guy was diverse. However, Herrick's most famous poems t...
Tough-o-Meter
The language is simple and conversational, but allusions to mythological beings and some coy innuendo keep you digging beneath the surface. Plus, although it's a straightforward narrative (get out...
Trivia
Herrick also wrote this poetic gem, entitled "Her Legs":Fain would I kiss my Julia's dainty leg,Which is as white and hairless as an egg.Self-absorbed? Herrick wrote fourteen different poems called...
Steaminess Rating
Wink Wink. Although lust is a major theme and the whole premise of the poem is, "Come along and make love to me," "Corinna's Going A-Maying" hides most of its sex under the covers. Still, innuendo...
Allusions
Aurora (3)Helios (2)Flora (17)Titan (25)