Abstract Robert Herrick's use of ceremony in his poetry generally has been understood to be closely related to his artistry. Critics have attempted to show that ceremony gives ornament and even form to Herrick's lyric mode. However, ceremony has a more organic relationship to Herrick's ceremonial poetry than such an emphasis implies. Herrick's view of ceremony informs certain poems to the extent that it becomes e controlling metaphor of the kind that indicates a way of perceiving the world.