Before he writes a single line, Robert Herrick says, he will ask Ben Jonson for help. Over three short stanzas he asks for a smooth path for his verse, promises to kneel and offer his lyric, and pledges candles, a new altar and a page in his psalter. The poem is a compliment, and a clever one. Herrick does not say that Jonson is a great poet. He treats him as a saint, someone to be prayed to, thanked and honoured. The central idea is that artistic inspiration feels like grace, a gift from a source outside yourself, and that the proper response to a master is something like devotion.
The religious vocabulary builds steadily. In the first stanza Herrick has "pray'd" and calls on "old religion's sake." In the second he is "on my knee," a posture of humility. In the third he lists the physical trappings of worship: candles, an altar, a psalter. The poem moves from asking to kneeling to paying, as if Herrick were working through the stages of a real act of devotion. The phrase "old religion's sake" is worth pausing on. Judging by the context, it appeals to the traditional habit of praying to saints, and Herrick borrows it as a playful excuse for treating a fellow poet this way. The tone seems half serious and half teasing, and the teasing is part of the charm.
The form supports that tone. Each stanza is a quatrain with an ABAB rhyme scheme, and the lines are very short, alternating between about six and five syllables. The result is a light, quick rhythm, closer to a skipping chant than to a solemn hymn. That lightness quietly undercuts the grand talk of altars and saints, so the reverence stays affectionate rather than stiff. The rhymes also tie the two men together. Almost every "A" or "B" rhyme in the poem is a pronoun or a plain word with the same long "ee" sound: "thee," "me," "knee," "be." Again and again "me" is answered by "thee," so the sound of the poem keeps pairing the student with the master.
The most striking rhymes come at the ends of the second and third stanzas, where Herrick switches to two-syllable endings. "Herrick" rhymes with "lyric," and "altar" with "psalter." The first pair puts his own name next to his art, as though the two were inseparable. The phrase "thy Herrick" is also telling. It is humble, since he places himself under Jonson's care, but it is also affectionate and a little proud, like a pupil introducing himself to a teacher. The second pair, "altar" and "psalter," joins the place of worship to the book of worship, which prepares for the last twist.
That twist is in the final lines: "thou, Saint Ben, shalt be / Writ in my psalter." A psalter is a book of psalms, so Herrick is saying that Jonson will be written into the poet's own sacred book. Herrick's book is of course his poetry. The offering he promises is therefore not really candles or an altar, which are only pictures for the idea. It is the verse itself. The "lyric" he offers on his knee in the second stanza is the poem we are reading, and by writing it he is already keeping his promise. The poem is both the prayer and the gift.
The poem is worth studying for how much it does in twelve short lines. It gives a clear picture of how a poet can think about influence. Herrick does not hide what he owes to another writer or pretend to have made everything alone. He admits the debt cheerfully, and he makes it into a small act of worship. The poem also shows how much a light touch can achieve. Nothing in it is heavy or boastful, yet its structure of request, humility and repayment feels complete. Praise that is witty and a little playful can sound warmer than a solemn tribute would.