Most people would happily pay to look younger. Herrick's speaker, in four short lines, turns the offer down. He tells a group of young women not to bring him a "black colouring" for his hair, a dye, presumably, to hide the grey. The poem's central idea is that growing old needs no disguise. He doesn't mourn his hair or fight it, and he certainly doesn't pretend. "Grey or white, all's one to me" is a shrug, and the poem is cheerful rather than bitter.
The opening phrase, "Wanton wenches," sets the tone. The repeated w gives it a teasing, breathy sound. "Wanton" suggests playful, unruly and a little flirtatious, while "wenches" can sound affectionate rather than harsh. Judging by the lines, the girls are eager to fuss over him, and he answers them with good humour. By line 3 the address softens into a plainer "girls," tucked between commas: "For my locks, girls, let 'em be." The contraction "'em" and the interrupting address make him sound like a man talking across a room, not declaiming. The refusal comes with a smile.
The hair itself is described in two different ways. In line 2 it is "my hairs," a plural that has the comic, tender feel of individual strands, as if each one could be counted and found wanting. In line 3 it becomes "locks," a grander and more poetic word. The same hair is promoted from something to be hidden to something worth leaving alone. The colours also move. "Black" belongs only to the rejected dye. Once the speaker takes over, the palette runs through "grey" to "white." In four lines the poem passes from dark to light and sketches a whole ageing process in miniature. He even names the stage that hasn't arrived yet, and he does it without flinching.
The form carries the same easy attitude. The poem is two rhyming couplets, with each line only seven syllables long. The rhythm falls from stress to unstress, as in WAN-ton WEN-ches DO not BRING, which gives it the light, tripping feel of a song. The two rhymes behave differently. "Bring" and "colouring" are slightly lopsided, because a full stress meets a weak suffix, and the word order is twisted so that "black colouring" can land at the line's end. The inversion makes the request sound brisk and a little fussy. The second rhyme, "be" and "me," has an open vowel and lets the voice relax. The poem moves from prohibition to ease, and it ends on "me," a quiet claim that the speaker is the one who decides. Line 3 also slows the pace. "For my locks, girls, let 'em be" piles up stresses and sounds almost like a gentle command. Then the last line, with its colloquial "all's one to me," lets the tension go.
The repetition of "For my" at the start of lines 2 and 3 ties the two couplets together. It is the same phrase with opposite verdicts, one refusing the dye and one accepting the grey. The poem turns on that pivot.
What makes the poem worth reading is how much attitude it fits into so little space. Poems about growing old tend to be urgent or mournful, so a speaker who simply doesn't mind stands out. He isn't renouncing the girls' company either. He still addresses them, and "wanton" suggests he enjoys it. What he refuses is the disguise, not the desire.
There is also a pleasing irony. A man who says nothing matters to him about his hair has still shaped four lines with care, using careful rhyme, a rhythm that moves easily, and a deliberate shift from "hairs" to "locks." The nonchalance is crafted. Herrick wrote many brief lyrics, and this one shows how small choices of word, sound and order can build a personality, here a good-humoured and unvain one, in the space of a single breath.