Poem by Robert Herrich
“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick.
In the opening stanza, the poet articulates the carpe diem tenet that urges one to "Seize the Day." The gathering of roses is a metaphor for living life to the fullest. The image of roses suggests a number of things: roses symbolize sensuality and the fulfillment of earthly pleasures; as vegetation, they are tied to the cycles of nature and represent change and the transience of life. Like the "virgins," the roses are buds, fresh, youthful and brimming with life; youth, like life, however, is fleeting. Marked by brevity, life is such that one day one experiences joy, as suggested by the smiling flower, and the next day death. The poet underscores the ephemeral quality of human life. Like the rose, the virgins whom the speaker addresses, and beyond them the reader of the text, are destined to follow the same fate as the rose.
The Latin term carpe diem is a descriptive word for literature that presses readers to "seize the moment." It mainly tries to pursue a woman or women that they have true physical beauty and should take advantage of their good looks now before time will take a toll on them.
"To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time," portrays carpe diem by citing the shortness of life and persuading young women to marry and enjoy the life of youth at its advantage before death takes its turn. Herrick's "To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time" fits the meaning of carpe diem by encouraging the beauty of youth and life itself. His calm and moralizing detachment from the personal environment pursues his own view of time and life.
Then not be coy but use your time,
And, while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime
You may forever tarry.
He urges young virgins to be held in the hand of marriage to fulfill life. Love life, marry life. He encourages young women to experience life to the fullest extent of their existence. If they don't take up that chance then they might have to
In the opening stanza, the poet articulates the carpe diem tenet that urges one to "Seize the Day." The gathering of roses is a metaphor for living life to the fullest. The image of roses suggests a number of things: roses symbolize sensuality and the fulfillment of earthly pleasures; as vegetation, they are tied to the cycles of nature and represent change and the transience of life. Like the "virgins," the roses are buds, fresh, youthful and brimming with life; youth, like life, however, is fleeting. Marked by brevity, life is such that one day one experiences joy, as suggested by the smiling flower, and the next day death. The poet underscores the ephemeral quality of human life. Like the rose, the virgins whom the speaker addresses, and beyond them the reader of the text, are destined to follow the same fate as the rose.
The Latin term carpe diem is a descriptive word for literature that presses readers to "seize the moment." It mainly tries to pursue a woman or women that they have true physical beauty and should take advantage of their good looks now before time will take a toll on them.
"To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time," portrays carpe diem by citing the shortness of life and persuading young women to marry and enjoy the life of youth at its advantage before death takes its turn. Herrick's "To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time" fits the meaning of carpe diem by encouraging the beauty of youth and life itself. His calm and moralizing detachment from the personal environment pursues his own view of time and life.
Then not be coy but use your time,
And, while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime
You may forever tarry.
He urges young virgins to be held in the hand of marriage to fulfill life. Love life, marry life. He encourages young women to experience life to the fullest extent of their existence. If they don't take up that chance then they might have to