Comparing Herrick

Today's quiz was on "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick. We compared it to "Get out the Map" by the Indigo Girls, "Brass Bed" by Josh Gracin, "Forever Young" by Alphaville, and "Check Yes, Juliet" by We the Kings.

We also discussed carpe diem. We will have other poems that discuss this "Seize the day" idea. Most of them are about romance.
 Carpe diem Latin expression that means "seize the day." Carpe diem poems urge the reader (or the person to whom they are addressed) to live for today and enjoy the pleasures of the moment. A famous carpe diem poem by Robert Herrick begins "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may . . ."  
carpe diem [kar‐pe dee‐em], a quotation from Horace's Odes (I, xi) meaning ‘seize the day’, in other words ‘make the best of the present moment’. A common theme or motif in European lyricpoetry, in which the speaker of a poem argues (often to a hesitant virgin) that since life is short, pleasure should be enjoyed while there is still time. The most celebrated examples in English are Marvell's ‘To His Coy Mistress’ (1681) and Herrick's ‘To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time’ (1648), which begins ‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may’. In some Christian poems and sermons, thecarpe diem motif warns us to prepare our souls for death, rather than our bodies for bed.

carpe diem (kär'pĕ dē'ĕm), a descriptive term for literature that urges readers to live for the moment [from the Latin phrase "seize the day," used by Horace]. The theme, which was widely used in 16th- and 17th-century love poetry, is best exemplified by a familiar stanza from Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time": Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,Old time is still a-flying;And this same flower that smiles todayTomorrow will be dying.

Shakespeare's version of the theme takes the following form in  Twelfth Night: "What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;/ Present mirth has present laughter;/ What's to come is still unsure./ In delay there lies no plenty,/ Then come and kiss me sweet and twenty;/ Youth's a stuff will not endure.

Today after school, we'll look at MODERN "carpe diem" in Dead Poet's Society. Bring your own popcorn.