Gather ye rose-buds?

Jun 19, 2025 16:37:28

In 1648 Robert Herrick wrote a poem.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

A good poem, and I understand what it actually MEANS, but then my brain gets involved.
Rose buds? I have gathered rose hips before, and sometimes whole flowers for the petals, but not the buds. What would I do with them?

Gather ye seed heads... Ah THAT I grasp! I just gathered some wild phlox seed heads so I can continue spreading the phlox all over. That's a useful thing to do when you are young too, gather so you can multiply good things. Us "not in our fair flush of youth and virginity" types also gather lots of seeds, we have learned they are important if you ever want buds to happen. Make your own wonderful things so you have them!

Sometimes understanding poems still doesn't make much sense of poetic language to me.
:D

Jun 19, 2025 17:08:07

Yea, well, methinks, the budding shoots in early spring be a salutary nibble and are excellent for the vitamin C.

Maybe it means buds that have just opened slightly, so that none of the scent is yet released?

Jun 19, 2025 17:41:44

I use rosebuds for several things - in chai, in a simple syrup for adding to drinks, desserts, or baking; infusing into oil for lotion bars; a hydrosol for skin cooling & toning and a gentle, healing wound rinse; in bath teas; in little sachets, in underwear drawers... If I could, I would use them much more often than I do.

Jun 19, 2025 19:13:52

Herrick, an Anglican cleric, is not known to have himself married. He also wrote "Upon Julia's Clothes" ("Whenas in silks my Julia goes..."). In "Her Legs", he also remarks admiringly that Julia's legs are "white and hairless as an egg".

The majority opinion seems to be that his muses - including Julia - may have been entirely theoretical and likely existed only in his mind.

It seems he may not have taken his own advice "to make much of time"!

I remember my maternal grandfather reciting "Gather ye rosebuds" to me. He also sang Christmas carols in Latin, in season. He graduated from high school during the Great Depression, largely due to the principal of his local school, who arranged some sort of maintenance and cleaning job for him to do at the school, after the end of the school day. His parents really would have preferred for him to leave school and find a full time job - they needed the money - but the after school job was enough for him to be allowed to remain for his last year and finish school to get his diploma. After graduating, he worked as a farm hand for some years, then got a "town job" when my mother was a young girl. For the rest of his working life, he unloaded lumber at the Grand Haven, Michigan, Story and Clark piano factory. But, even after he retired (and that's the only way I remember him), he could still quote poetry in English and Latin. He also managed to coax an extensive garden from what was basically beach sand, using (among other things) a high wheel cultivator, and was very good at fixing bicycles and roller skates and such. Anyway, he was my introduction to Herrick, and a lot more.

Jun 24, 2025 16:44:42

I was hoping to dry some rosebuds to make flowering tea.....I had a lovely cup of rosebud tea whilst out for dinner recently, and I was hoping to replicate the brew, however it didn't quite work out!
I gathered wild rosebuds, which were small and pretty, but not very scented, and some large Rosa rugosa buds - some just open and some still quite closed. These are much more scented. Unfortunately the buds got slightly scorched as I dried them in the bottom oven and the temperature was obviously a little high for the delicate petals. Interestingly the white Rosa rugosa petals turned quite pink, which might be useful. Although not much use for tea now, the buds have made a rather pretty bowl of pot pourri.

Jun 24, 2025 18:10:53

Yum I just made some sweet tea with rose petals and dried strawberries,dried orange peel, hubiscus. And some dried sugar cane. Helps with the heat. And tastes good. This lady I know makes them and sells them. I bought some off her. The smell of rose really heal you.

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