Poetry Analysis Essay on To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time

Introduction

Collect the buds of your flowers while you are still young, time is flying and the flower which has just flowered today will wither tomorrow, the magnificent sun shining from above, as soon as it rises higher, its disappearance becomes imminent, it will soon set and its time diminishes and its light will disappear as it sets in the west. At a young age, it is good to use time wisely since a youth has all the bodily advantages in terms of energy. A time will come when one will no longer be a youth anymore. Do not play around especially when you have all the required characters of a charming person, utilize your time and marry while you still have what it takes, If you lose your chance at the time when you have all the advantages, You may remain stagnant forever (Herrick).

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A poet is an adult man from England; he was a country's pastor who never got married throughout his life. He spent most of his time writing poems. He wrote this poem at mid-1640's considering the fact that he did not get married; he gives us an idea of the reasons which may have propelled him to write the poem. Having spent most of his time doing other things, the poet now realizes that he should have married when he was still young and ripe to satisfy women. He is regretting ever wasting the opportunity he had when he was still young (Herrick). He advises the youth to use their time and bodies wisely and get a woman or a man while they are still attractive since time is flying very fast. He states that" Old time is still a flying, this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying (Herrick)." The energy that you have fades away as time goes by hence it is important to act now.

The poet is trying to tell the youth to make use of their time while they are still young. The title of the poem states that" To the Virgins, to make much of time. " The poem is directed to youth who still have time to get the partners of their choice and marry since as the day passes, humans grow old and everything will never be the same again. The writer creates an impression that he himself did not use his youth wisely thus he advises those who still have a chance to use that opportunity wisely based on his own experience. The poet uses an imperative tone to ask the youth to utilize the chance they have now when they are still sexually energetic (Herrick). The poem is lyric; it expresses both personal and emotional feelings on the side of the poet to the reader.

People especially the women who have been described in this poem are urged to make love and marry while they are still young. According to the writer, if one waits until they get old, they are probably going to regret having allowed time to pass by without making a move. A metaphorical and personified language has been used to express ideas and relate to different people or characters in the poem especially the virgins. The mood of the poem can be said to be personal and emotional, from history, we realize that the poet did not get married neither did he had a relationship mentioned in his lifetime thus the author tables this issues in his poem to express how disappointed it can be not to enjoy your youth while you still can. It gets personal when he uses the word coy to describe a section of youth who chooses to sit on the opportunities available to them (Herrick).

This poem has been written in first person point of view. Each line of the poem rhymes with a pattern of ABAB. The first line ends with 'mer' while the second the third and the forth ends with 'rst' 'mer' and rst respectively (Herrick). This style is known as consonance, this creates a musical atmosphere in the poem. It makes the poem to sound like music and makes it easy to recite and remember. In this poem, the poet uses the rhyme scheme to emphasize the message he is delivering to the audience.

The poem has been divided it into four stanzas, each stanza has four lines. It has been written in first person point of view. The language has been used uniformly from the first stanza to the last. The message or the situation changes from the point where a person is a rosebud till he or she is supposed to marry. In the first stanza, the poet is talking about the youth, who are in the prime of active sexual life, as the poem progresses, it flows towards the point where the rosebuds are mature enough and are advised to marry (Herrick). A figurative language has been used predominantly throughout the poem. This brings out a bit of complexity in the text.

The poet uses the genre of "carpe diem" a Latin aphorism which translates to "seize the day". The poem is all about enjoying the youth by either having sex or marrying while a person is still young because they still have energy and a drive to do so. Seizing the day implies taking the opportunity. The poet has used this genre to bring out the originality and the message to his audience. One gets to understand the importance of making a good use of their time while they are still young. It is all about living life to the fullest. The genre has been used as mentioned emphasis on the message and relates to the work which had been done by other poets like Christopher Marlowe especially the one titled "the passionate shepherd to his love". These poems are also called the persuasion poems where the poet uses words to convince someone to do something.

The poet uses different choices of words, in the first line of the first stanza, he uses a figurative language. The word rosebuds have been used to symbolize youth and virginity. The rose flowers only once and its shining spree is short-lived. The poet also uses personification in the second stanza; the sun is used to elaborate the passing of time. It rises from the east and within a short period of time, it sets in the west. The poet is comparing the passing of the day with the with the teenager's youth, he says " The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, the higher he's a-getting, the sooner will his race be run, and the nearer he is to the setting (Herrick)." The sun in this context has been used to represent the energy of the youth, it sets soon to mean it will soon be over and the sexual drive also is over leaving them with nothing but regrets. The imperative mood sets from the start with the use of the verb "gather" which is a trochaic foot. The poet uses juxtaposition to show how time is short when he refers to the phrase "today" and "tomorrow" (Herrick). The poet also personifies time as something which has an age. In reality, time does not get older.

Conclusion

The poem is directed towards the virgins, it is addressing the youth who have never had sex in the society especially those who are at the prime of their youth. It starts with virginity and should end in marriage. The poet is emphasizing on how time run out very first without people noticing. The poet brings out the message by using different choices of words. The setting of the poem is most likely a society with people if different age bracket. The main theme of the poem is sex and marriage. The Rosebuds have been used to signify virginity and beauty of the virgins. It can easily be concluded that the rosebuds represent beautiful women who are coy (Herrick). Being coy is stagnating at one point even when you have what it takes to take an action. In this poem, the poet is trying to discourage the youth from being coy. This according to him is what makes people miss out on special moments in life. The poet brings out the message in four stanzas in with the figurative language taking the center stage. From the poem, there many themes being addresses including the importance of utilizing the available opportunity, sex marriage, and time consciousness.

Work Cited

Herrick, Robert. "To the virgins, to make much of time." Arthur Quiller Couch, ed (1919).