TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME.
by Robert Herrick

This poem is another example of carpe diem "seize the day" poetry, yet this one is not literally looking at "virgins" and instead giving a message to all youth to live life to the fullest... GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying : And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he's a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he's to setting. That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer ; But being spent, the worse, and worst Times still succeed the former. Then be not coy, but use your time, And while ye may go marry : For having lost but once your prime You may for ever tarry.

I really like this poem because of the gentle tone it has and the way it weaves such a strong message through its use of metaphor.  It starts out by telling youth to “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” which means to absorb and cherish all the small but beautiful events that occur in our lives. Such as stopping here and there to look around at the people we see everyday or even smelling a rose. We often forget to look around and enjoy what we have because we are so caught up in our thoughts and regrets of the past and worries of the future. Remembering that the present may never again be repeated and “this same flower that smiles to-day, to-morrow will be dying” is always a thought we have to keep in mind. As we hate to think about it, we are not immortal and we become older each day and closer to our end. So we should not “ be coy, but use [our] time” and enjoy our moments because "For having lost but once [our] prime" and our chances during our youth at beauties of life,  "[We] may for ever tarry" and live our old years in regret and sorrow.  All the moments that we could have experienced would not be memories later on, but instead dreams of why we didn't savor our precious times at youth.

Edmund Spencer's Sonnet 75

 Sonnet 75: This sonnet has beautiful imagery and is rich in metaphor.

 One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

"Vain man", said she, "that doest in vain assay

A mortal thing so to immortalize,

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eek my name be wiped out likewise."

"Not so" (quod I), "let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name.

Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew."

 

             Out of the three sonnets by Edmund Spencer, this one captured my attention the most from the first four lines where it describes a man who continuously wants to have the name of his love written and planted down for himself.  I thought at first that it was about him wanting to force the woman to love him but fate not letting this happen.  But as I read further down I started seeing words such as mortal, immortal, decay and die and came to the conclusion that these two were lovers once but the woman died.  Now the man tries to the best of his ability to pretend that she is still alive but even she doesn't agree with his desire. When she says "that doest in vain assay. A mortal thing so to immortalize" she is asking him why he persist to make a mortal being immortal that she prefers to be accepted as dead and be "wiped out" from the living world. But he cannot believe that she wants to be forgotten and "die in dust" like "baser things devise" (here he is comparing baser things to people who he believes are lower and less worthy than his lady). To him she is so dear and precious that the heavens must know her "glorious name" and that is the reason why he consistently tries to have it written down in the mortal world. This shows again that he wants to keep her tied back to his world.  

            In the last two lines he's starting to agree of this fate but still mentions that their love will always be alive.  As well, when death takes him, as it takes the rest of the world, he know that they will come together and live the next, new life (afterlife) together.

           I did not quite understand the line "My verse your virtues rare shall eternize" but other than that I found this sonnet was rather interesting and sounded quite melodious when read out loud!

My very first post

Hello everyone and welcome to my Literature blog.  During the coming months I'm going to be posting literature comments and you are welcome to comment on them. Make sure to give your opinions!!