The first composers to set Herrick to music were near-contemporaries: at least 40 settings of 31 poems appear in manuscript and printed songbooks of 1624–1683, by Henry and William Lawes, John Wilson, Robert Ramsey and others. It is clear from references within Hesperides that many other settings have not survived.[13][14]
From the early 20th century, Herrick's verse became popular with a range of composers.[15] One of them, Fritz Hart, was by far the most prolific, with more than 120 settings composed throughout his life, mostly collected in Fourteen Songs, op. 10 (1912), Twenty-One Songs, op. 23 (1916), Twenty Five Songs in five sets, opp. 50–54 (1922), Nine Sets of Four Songs Each, opp. 82–90 (1930), Three Sets of Five Songs, opp. 148–150 (1941), and Two Sets of Five Songs, opp. 166–167 (1948).[16]
Other settings from this period include:[16]
- Arnold Bax: To Daffodils; Eternity
- Lennox Berkeley: How love came in
- Havergal Brian: The Mad Maid's Song; Why dost thou wound, and break my heart?; The Night Piece
- Frank Bridge: The Primrose; The Hag; Fair Daffodils
- Benjamin Britten: Spring Symphony (To Violets); Five Flower Songs (To Daffodils; The Succession of the Four Sweet Months)
- Isaiah Burnell: Gather Ye Rosebuds, choral setting (1930)
- Benjamin Burrows: Upon Love; The Olive Branch; The Wounded Cupid; To Music
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: The Guest (Scena)
- Jean Coulthard: Threnody (Here a solemn fast we keep), choral setting (1935)
- Walford Davies: Eternity; Noble Numbers, op. 28 (Weigh me the fire; God's Dwelling; Grace for a Child; What Sweeter Music)
- Frederick Delius: To Daffodils
- George Dyson: To Music
- Christopher Edmunds: The Bellman
- John Foulds: To Music
- Ivor Gurney: To Violets; Lullaby
- Joseph Holbrooke: To Dianeme
- Herbert Howells: Here she lies, a pretty bud
- Peter Hurford: Litany to the Holy Spirit
- Ernest John Moeran: Candlemas Eve
- Hubert Parry: Julia
- Roger Quilter: To Julia, op. 8 (The Bracelet; The Maiden Blush; To Daisies; The Night Piece; Julia's Hair; Cherry Ripe). To Electra; Tulips
- Dagmar de Corval Rybner: Bid Me to LIve[17]
- Alan Rawsthorne: To Daffodils
- Hugh S. Roberton: Here a solemn fast we keep (threnody for equal voices, 1929)
- Charles Villiers Stanford: To Carnations; To the Rose; A Welcome Song; To Music
- Robert Still: To Julia; Upon Julia's Clothes
- Donald Tovey: The Mad Maid's Song (in three parts)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: To Daffodils (two settings)
- Peter Warlock: Two Short Songs (I held love's head; Thou gav'st me leave to kiss)
- Leslie Woodgate: The White Island
