Seizing the Day with the Elements of Poetry The Latin phrase “Carpe diem” means to “seize the day.” This motto is used as a common theme throughout literature and poetry. In Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” the theme of Carpe diem is coupled with a message that urges young women into relationships due to the destructive power of the passing of time. Herrick and Marvell are able to get the theme across by the manipulation of the elements of poetry to support and aid the readers to drawing the authors’ intended purpose and lesson out of the text. To begin, the format of the poems reflects the theme through the meter and use of the rhyme scheme. The poem by Robert Herrick, “To
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Both poems are set up into three acts. The first being about the usage and passage of time, followed by what will happen if it is used poorly, then finishing with statements on how to then spend the time and youth wisely. The structure of these two poems, however, differ in their point of view. In “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” the poem is addressed directly to the reader. This is supported with the use of the word “you,” or its likeness, in the first line and the last stanza. The speaker in this poem is an unnamed narrator or could be Herrick himself. It is therefore written in the second-person. In “To His Coy Mistress” the poem is addressed not to the reader, but to the unnamed woman or shy lover of the title. The speaker is anonymous like the other poem, but he uses words like “we” and “I”. This is what classifies it as written in the first-person. This changes how the theme is presented. With second-person the poem is more personal and intimate message, where first-person forces the readers to actively relate to the characters to receive the message.
Another element that the authors use in addition to format and structure is the element of imagery. Herrick in the first stanza draws a picture of a bouquet of roses;
Gather ye rosebuds while ye …show more content…
This connects to the theme that if actions are not taken now before time has its way, opportunities and love will cease to exist. Herrick seconds this thought in the fifteenth and sixteenth line, “for, having lost but once your prime, / you may forever tarry,” and the alliteration in the eleventh, “But being spent, the worse, and worst.” That the quality of a human life is greatest within youth, and one should not to waste it, but spend it well for only harder times are to come with
Both poems are set up into three acts. The first being about the usage and passage of time, followed by what will happen if it is used poorly, then finishing with statements on how to then spend the time and youth wisely. The structure of these two poems, however, differ in their point of view. In “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” the poem is addressed directly to the reader. This is supported with the use of the word “you,” or its likeness, in the first line and the last stanza. The speaker in this poem is an unnamed narrator or could be Herrick himself. It is therefore written in the second-person. In “To His Coy Mistress” the poem is addressed not to the reader, but to the unnamed woman or shy lover of the title. The speaker is anonymous like the other poem, but he uses words like “we” and “I”. This is what classifies it as written in the first-person. This changes how the theme is presented. With second-person the poem is more personal and intimate message, where first-person forces the readers to actively relate to the characters to receive the message.
Another element that the authors use in addition to format and structure is the element of imagery. Herrick in the first stanza draws a picture of a bouquet of roses;
Gather ye rosebuds while ye …show more content…
This connects to the theme that if actions are not taken now before time has its way, opportunities and love will cease to exist. Herrick seconds this thought in the fifteenth and sixteenth line, “for, having lost but once your prime, / you may forever tarry,” and the alliteration in the eleventh, “But being spent, the worse, and worst.” That the quality of a human life is greatest within youth, and one should not to waste it, but spend it well for only harder times are to come with