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Positive Carpe Diem

Decent Essays

Robert Herrick uses positive carpe diem arguments, in complement with negative and manipulative threats to attain sexual favors from his female characters. In Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, Herrick blatantly objectifies women as having only a sexual value, immediately in the poem; specifically that females are more valuable sexually while they are younger, and by extent more attractive in his eyes. This is assumed throughout the poem, and especially is embodied in his first stanza of the poem, when he states “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying!” The author does this specifically in the usage of the phrase old time. The usage of old time is not positioned to state that time has always …show more content…

Herrick writes “That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer.” Herrick is using a more puissant theory to aid in transitioning from an ephemeral lifespan, into a technique in which he appeals to the reader's own desires. While one's youth and blood are warmer is Herrick’s way of saying at a young age you may feel romantic desires at a high concentration. This however would not provide enough evidence to favor his position if he did not immediately follow it with a more sexually concerned notion. Herrick follows the text quoted above with the following in the same stanza. “But being spent, the worse, and worst times still succeed the former.” This is another form to demonize aging, and bring the time aspect of the carpe diem aspect back into the argument. At a young age, the reader best “best” in terms of emotional reward, which then becomes worse and worst as the individual ages. The last stanza brings the second fraction of a metaphysical carpe diem poem into conclusion. The final stanza states “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.” This call to action asks that the young woman who reads this poem relieve herself of coy mannerisms and embrace a more liberal approach to

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