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CARPE DIEM: TO THE VIRGINS (ROBERT HERRICK) – TO HIS

COY MISTRESS (ANDREW MARVEL)
Posted on 21 December 2018by rosariomario
“ Dum luquimur, fugerit invidia aetas: Carpe diem quam minimum credula
postero” / / While speaking, the envious time flies away : Seize the present day! don’t
wait for the tomorrow! ( Odes, Horace)
Vìvamùs, mea Lèsbia, àtque amèmus, /……… Sòles òccidere èt redìre pòssunt:
/nòbis, cùm semel òccidìt brevìs lux,/ nòx est pèrpetua ùna dòrmiènda // Let
us live, my Lesbia, and love,/ …….. Days fall and rise again/:Once our brief light fades
away,/ For us it’ll be perpetual night ( Catullus, Carme 5 )
Quant’è bella giovinezza,/che si fugge tuttavia! /chi vuol esser lieto, sia:/di
doman non c’è certezza // How Beautiful our Youth is ! /But it flies very fast! /Be happy
if you want to ! / Nothing is sure about Tomorrow!/ (Lorenzo il Magnifico, La Canzona
di Bacco)
Come, my Celia, let us prove, /While we can, the sports of love; /Time will not
be ours forever; / He at length our good will sever./ Spend not then his gifts in
vain./ Suns that set may rise again; /But if once we lose this light, /’Tis with
us perpetual night. ( Ben Johnson, Volpone, Act II, Scene VII – Come, My Celia )
So passeth, in the passing of a day,/of mortal life the leaf, the bud, the flower,/
Ne(nor) more doth flourish after first decay,/That erst (once) was sought to
deck both bed and bower,/Of many a Lady, and many a Paramour:/ Gather
therefore the Rose, whilst yet is prime/ For soon comes age, that will her pride
deflower:/ Gather the Rose of love, whilst yet is time,/Whilst loving thou
mayst loved be with equal crime. (Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen, book II )
The theme of Carpe Diem has always fascinated philosophers and poets from the Ancient
time to the present. In English literature it was particularly felt in the poets of the 16th and
17th century. Its message is quite simple: Life is short, Time runs, Death is always round
the corner; so it is better to live the gifts/pleasures the present offers us than to postpone
them for the tomorrow. The invitation to live the present refers to every moment of life
but many persons often link it only to physical love, passion and pleasure. The two poems
given below are an example of the Carpe Diem message.
TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME ( Robert Herrick)
1)Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
5)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.
9)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.
13)Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
Robert Herrick belonged to the Cavalier Poets who wrote in opposition to the
Puritanism. He was influenced by Ben Johnson and by the ancient Roman poets. He wrote
both secular and religious poems. He was in favour of a carpe diem philosophy of life. The
poem “ To the Virgins” is from a volume of his poems called Hesperides . It is an invitation
to young people to enjoy what life offered.
The poem is divided in four stanzas of four lines; each stanza has the same rhyme pattern;
the first line rhymes with the third and the second with the fourth. The theme is the Horatian
theme of Carpe Diem. The poet invites the girls on their prime of youth to enjoy themselves
while they can (Gather ye rose-buds while ye may) and to use their time ( Then be not coy,
but use your time ) because life is very short and also because youth is the best age to amuse
( That age is best which is the first ). This because in youth the body is strong and the blood
is warm ( When youth and blood are warmer ). Youth is as short as the life of a flower; once
it has passed “worst times” will come. The life of man has the same course as the daily life
of the sun; the higher the sun is in the sky ( The higher he’s a-getting ), the nearer it is to
setting; The message is: Men shouldn’t run the risk of wasting the gifts of youth because
the older they get , the nearer they are to death.
TO HIS COY MISTRESS ( Andrew Marvel)
1)Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love’s day.
5)Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
10)Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
15)Two hundred to adore each breast;
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart;
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
20)Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
25)Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
30)And into ashes all my lust:
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
35)And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
40) Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
45) Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Andrew Marvel belonged neither to the metaphysical poets nor to the Cavaliers but he
united in his verses the best qualities of the two schools of poetry. He was a Puritan and a
friend of Milton’s. He succeeded in reconciling his religious belief with his passion for life
and sexuality. Marvel wrote lyrical poems, satirical poems about public figures of his time,
some political pamphlets and a long serious of newsletters on the work of Parliament. He
attacked political leaders, members of the aristocracy, the Court and the King himself. To
protect him, his works circulated anonymously during his lifetime and were published only
some years after his death. He drew inspiration from many sources including the Cavalier
poets, John Donne and the classical authors. In To His Coy Mistress the poet deals with the
Carpe Diem theme.
As Herrick’s poem, the main theme of To his Coy Mistress is the theme of physical love
and Carpe diem. The poem is an invitation to his reluctant woman to accept the poet’s
love; time runs, old age and death are near; they must enjoy their pleasure on earth because
the grave is not a place for embraces. Unlike To the Virgins, Marvel’s poem is ameditation
on time, death and human destiny. Physical love is prevalent; it is a violent and
passionate love: “ let us sport us while we may/like amorous birds of prey(ll.37-38) …. and
tear our pleasures with rough strife (l. 43)”. Following the scheme of a syllogism, the
poem may be divided into three parts: a premise (If we had time we could wait), a co-
premise (But we have no time) and a conclusion (let’s live our pleasure now). Each part
deals with a different phase of the poet’s attempt to win the lady’s reluctance.
In the first part (ll. 1-20) the poet wants to persuade his woman to accept his love.
Both time and places are excessively dilated. He imagines a situation with infinite
time and space; the woman in India “by the Indian Gange’s side” and the poet in England
“by the tide of Humber “. He could love her at a distance and for a long time. The modes and
the tenses of the first part are conditional and subjunctive because he is making a list
of impossible hypothesis. The poet underlines that if they had time enough, they could
postpone the time of fulfilment of their love and could spend it in the preparation; “thou ..
Shouldst rubies find …. I would complain”. The poet’s love would grow “vaster than
Empire”. He could love and court her for ages and she could refuse for ages: “ten years
before the Flood… Till the conversion of the Jews”. He flatters her prizing her beauty in
detail; he mentions different parts of her body and says in a sort of crescendo how long he
would adore them: “An hundred years should go to prise/ Thine eyes and on thy forehead
gaze; / Two hundred to adore each breast/ and thirty thousand to the rest”.
The second part (ll. 21- 32) is introduced by the word “But”. It means that the poet is
introducing new arguments which contrast those of the first premise. He uses the future
and the present because he is predicting what will certainly happen; Time runs, Life is short
and Death is hurrying near; their future includes a grave, dusts and ashes: “at my back I
always hear/ Time’s winged chariot hurrying near; / and yonder all before us lie/ deserts
of vast eternity ….. then worms shall try/ that long preserved virginity ”. She will
become dust (what remains of fertile soil for lack of water; it refers to the aridity of her love)
and he ashes (the result of the fire; it refers to his lust). He focuses on the physical
decay brought about by the passing of time; they both have changed; the woman is no
more beautiful and the poet’s passion has faded: “thy beauty shall no more be
found …..your quaint honour turn to dust and into ashes my lust” .
The third part (ll. 33-46) is the conclusion to the poet’s previous argumentations. It is
introduced by “Now therefore“; “Now” because she is still beautiful and he is still full of
love: “Now therefore, while the youthful hue/ sits on thy skin like morning dew…… ”. The
poet invites the woman to enjoy the pleasures that life offers them without postponing
what they can enjoy today; He uses the imperative mode because he is encouraging her to
accept his love. The last two lines suggest how to win against Time; they cannot stop it, but
they can run with it living intensely every moment of their pleasure: “Thus, though we
cannot make our sun/ stand still, yet we will make him run ”. Is it a good piece of advice?
Does it work? I don’know! but I think it’s better to use our time properly than to measure it
obsessively.