Paper Topic:

Poetry Explication

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6 May 2008

To the Virgins , To Make Much of Time

Seizing the moment and taking the time to marry while the opportunity is at hand These are what the poem To the Virgins , To Make Much of Time ' by Robert Herrick implies . The setting , vividly described in the poem , depicts a garden in a classic European background with the day slowly passing by and the sun , assumed as a man , gradually taking its way down the horizon . It signifies and represents a woman

with a flower which after the day would be left alone wilting

In the first stanza , Herrick writes

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may

Old Time is still a-flying

And this same flower that smiles to-day

To-morrow will be dying

The language used in this part of the poem , with its exuberant use of the word ye ' and the eloquent tone it carries , expresses the grandeur of Europe . With the pauses and dashes within words used for emphasis the author shows the need to take the chance to marry while we are young before all the time had passed

On the following stanza , Herrick writes

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

This stanza implies that a woman , when she reaches the peak of her age would have to settle down and have her own family . By that time , she would be choosing the man to marry and settle with . Through this it connects to the theme whereas a woman , facing the right time to choose a man , should be taking that chance rather than just let it go by

The third stanza says

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

Repeating the theme and further supporting the main idea of the poem this stanza explains why one should choose to marry while he had the vigor of youth . The form of language is quite informal yet it seems to bestow the words with some kind of authority gained from age and experience

In the fourth stanza , Herrick writes

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

Waiting . Herrick says here that waiting forever , for something that might never come again , would be the price for forsaking the chance to marry when it was right in your hands . When time have given you the opportunity to marry , he says that you should grab it , letting go of the inhibitions or the natural shyness , for if you just let it go you might end up being one of the old maidens and old unmarried men

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