If one thing is certain, it is that men and women are looked at very differently as they age and change with time. Aging is viewed as a negative concept, particularly in women. In Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” the speaker is expressing his subtle, insulting feelings that women should take advantage of their youth and marry young before they fall from their “prime” (line 15). Herrick uses symbolism and tone to convey the theme that women should seize the day because time is sure to run out more quickly than expected. At the beginning of the poem, Herrick displays the theme with the abundant use of symbolism. The idea that the “same flower that smiles today / tomorrow will be dying” symbolizes the fact that no
