17th Century Cavalier Poetry

17th century poetry is either religious manifested in the Metaphysical poets

who followed John Donne or secular poetry manifested in the Cavalier poets
who followed Ben Johnson.

The Cavalier Poets(The school of Ben):The name cavalier literally means knight.
Cavalier poets are a group of 17th century Royalist poets and soldiers who
supported King Charles I(1625-49) against the parliament in the Civil war of
1942.They lost the war and the Commonwealth was established. Some of the most
prominent Cavalier poets were Thomas Carew, Richard Lovelace, Robert Herrick,
and John Suckling.
The Cavalier poets wrote straightforward light-hearted poetry that seldom had
the depth of philosophical thought evident in metaphysical poetry. Many of the
poems centered around sensual, romantic love and also the idea of carpe diem,
which means to 'seize the day.'

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 “To Daffodils” by Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric.

“To Daffodils”
BY ROBERT HERRICK
Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And, having pray'd together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,

We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

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Structure: 2 stanzas, 10 lines each.
General meaning: the poem is a cavalier poem in which the poet compares
between the short life of the daffodils ‫اﻟﻨﺮﺟﺲ‬and the short life span of man to
reflect the brevity of human life, youth and beauty.
Themes:
1. The brevity of human life, youth and beauty.
2. Carpe diem “seize the day”.

The message of the poem: to embrace the theme of carpe diem, to value life,
to, live, love, sing, dance, to enjoy life before it ends because life is too
short. So one must make use of every minute in life. This is shown in the
words "haste", "run", "short" and "quick."

Note: the poem is short, the lines are short with musical tone and most of the
words are monosyllabic(you, we, soon,…etc.). This is to reinforce the theme of
the poem which is the brevity of human life, youth and beauty.

Analysis:
1 Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
2You haste away so soon;
3As yet the early-rising sun
4 Has not attain'd his noon.
Fair: beautiful
Weep: cry
Haste: hurry
Attain: reach

The poet addresses the daffodils he tells them that he is so sad because he knows
the life of the flowers is short and will die soon and leave him. He says we grieve
to see the beautiful daffodils being wasted away very quickly. The duration of their
gloom is so short that they die even before the sun has reached its peak at
noon. "Early-rising sun" is youth; noon is middle age.

5 Stay, stay,
6 Until the hasting day

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7 Has run
8 But to the even-song;
9 And, having pray'd together, we
10 Will go with you along.

The poet addresses the daffodils and asks them to stay until the end of the day
with the evening prayer. After praying together he says that he will also
accompany the daffodils. This is so because like flowers men too have a very
transient life and even the youth is also very short-lived. The speaker talks of the
time of day, which is also symbolic of the stages of life.

Stanza 2:1 We have short time to stay, as you,

2 We have as short a spring;
3 As quick a growth to meet decay,
4 As you, or anything.
5 We die
6 As your hours do, and dry
7 Away,

The poet symbolically refers to the youth as spring in these lines. He compares
human life and the life of daffodils to spring, which is for a limited period of time .
He says that both man and the daffodils have a short spring(youth) and just like
dead plants, they decay as quickly as plants, to rejoin the soil. Plants, like
people, lose the hours to eventual death—just like the daffodils. The word
growth is significant because it emphasizes the stages of man’s life, from infancy
to childhood to youth to old age.

8 Like to the summer's rain;

9 Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
10 Ne'er to be found again.

The poet, after comparing the flowers to humans, later turns to the objects of
nature. He compares the life of daffodils with summer rain and the dew drops. The
life of the daffodils is as short as the rain of the summer season, which comes for a
very short time; and the dew-drops in the morning, which vanish away and never
return again.

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 Figures of Speech:

1 Fair Daffodils, we weep to see

2You haste away so soon;
3As yet the early-rising sun
4 Has not attain'd his noon

Lines 1-2:Apostrophe: Fair daffodils, you. The poet is addressing the daffodils in
lines 1 and 2.
Personification: Fair, you, haste :the daffodils are personified by being addressed
and also through the word fair and the verb haste.
Alliteration: we, weep /w/, so, soon /s/.
Imagery: we have the images of the daffodils.
Lines 3-4:

Imagery: we have the image of the sun.

Alliteration: has, his /h/.
Personification: the sun is personified through the pronoun his and the verb rising.
The sun is like a human being who rises early in the morning.

5 Stay, stay,
6 Until the hasting day
7 Has run
8 But to the even-song;
9 And, having pray'd together, we
10 Will go with you along.

Lines 5-7: Alliteration: stay, stay /s/.

Repetition: stay is repeated twice.
Apostrophe: stay. the poet is addressing the daffodils asking them to stay.
Personification: the daffodils are personified by being addressed.
Personification: hasting day. The day is personified by being in a hurry.

Lines 8-10: Alliteration: will, with /w/.

Apostrophe: you. The poet is addressing the daffodils.
Personification: pray, you. The daffodils are personified by being addressed and
through the verb pray.

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Stanza 2: 1 We have short time to stay, as you,
2 We have as short a spring;
3 As quick a growth to meet decay,
4 As you, or anything.
5 We die
6 As your hours do, and dry
7 Away,
Lines 1-7: Alliteration: time, to /t/.
Apostrophe: you lines 1-4 Line 6 your: the poet is addressing the daffodils.
Personification: the daffodils are personified by being addressed.
Simile: line 1:the poet compares the short life of the daffodils to the short life span of
man through the word ‘as’.
Simile: line 2:the poet compares human life to spring through ‘as’.
Anaphora: we have and as is repeated at the beginning of two successive lines.
Simile: Line 3-4: the poet compares the life of man and the short span of the
daffodils to the dead plants, we decay as quickly as plants, to rejoin the soil.
Euphemism: the poet says dry instead of die.
Personification: the hours of the day are personified by dying(dry).
Alliteration: do, dry /d/.

8 Like to the summer's rain;

9 Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
10 Ne'er to be found again.
Imagery: rain, pearls, morning’s dew. we have the images of the rain, pearls and
the dew.
Simile: Line 8:the poet compares the short life of the daffodils and the short life of
man to the shortness of rain in summer, through the word ‘like’.
Simile : line 9: the poet compares the short life of the daffodils and the short life of
man to the drops of morning’s dew, through the word ‘as’.
Metaphor: the drops of dew are compared to the pearls.

Zena Dhia Al-Munshi

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