Carpe Diem in Christopher Marlowe´s The Passionate Shephard to His Love and Rober Herrick´s To the Virgins, Make Much of Time

In both poems there is a sense of urgency. Certainly, the theme of carpe diem is in Herrick's verse as he utilizes the sun and its measure of a day as a metaphor for the swift passage of time. Even though Herrick and Marvell take different approaches toward the sun as a timekeeper, both their poems stress the need to enjoy love while there is yet time.

Ralegh conveys this somber realization through his plain style of verse. Though he describes the mistress in detail, she is not the subject of his poem. Ralegh uses Love’s mistress and her destruction as a vehicle to address the destructive nature of Time. He approaches that subject in the plain style, using short, proverbial phrases intended to make the reader aware of time and mutability. The poem contains several lines that are made entirely of one-syllable words, which draw out the time it takes to read the line. Contrast lines 31-32 in “Nature, that washed her hands in milk” with lines 8 and 10 in Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (p. 989). Marlowe describes the land in which he lives, where “Melodious birds sing madrigals,” and beds are made of “a thousand fragrant posies”. Marlowe’s verse sounds quick and light when spoken, simply because he uses fewer words in an eight-syllable line. Ralegh, in contrast, often uses seven or eight words to fill the same eight-syllable line: “Oh, cruel Time! which takes in trust/Our youth, our joys, and all we have…” Line 32 especially requires that the reader take more time to pronounce each syllable, which adds weight to each word.

The poems are similar in the sense that they both talk about love, but they are different in their contexts of love, Dawn Revisited being about the feelings towards her loved ones and at the sight of dawn and Carpe Diem being about the love felt towards another

In the poem “Carpe Diem” the speaker, Horace, is giving advice to the reader in a very serious manner. He is advising the reader to live life to the fullest and never take anything for granted. Meanwhile, Robert Herrick is giving the same advice but in a more light-hearted manner. Furthermore, in “Carpe Diem” and “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time, symbolism and different tones are utilized to portray the theme of living in the moment.

Two poems that can be compared to each other are “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.” These poems both seem to share the theme of life coming to a close. In the poem “To the Virgins”, there is a line that reads “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 creates an image of a soul ascending to heaven. “Do Not Go Gentle” conveys a similar image in the fourth stanza; as the souls go to heaven, they are welcomed by the sun’s rays. However, the poems also seem to share different meanings. The overall message of “To the Virgins” is that people should make the most of life because it will not last long. This is evidenced

Ever since the beginning of time, love has played an enormous role among humans. Everyone feels a need to love and to be loved. Some attempt to fill this yearning with activities and possessions that will not satisfy – with activities in which they should not participate and possessions they should not own. In Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress,” the speaker encounters an emotion some would call love but fits better under the designation of lust for a woman. In contrast, the speaker of Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” urges virgins to marry, to make a lasting commitment in which love plays a

The Passionate Shepherd To His Love; by Christopher Marlowe and The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by: Sir. Walter Raleigh. The purpose of this writing is to compare and contrast the two speakers point of view in the poem. I will also be discussing the four major themes of the: Passionate Shepherd To His Love and The Nymph's reply To The Shepherd, such as nature, love, material world, and time. I will be using evidence and lines from the two pastoral poems to help support my answers.

Both the poems have the theme of love, written from a man’s point of view, and explores the way men treat woman in relationships. The former does this by a male narrator writing a poem to a female, using imagery to entice her. The latter by using a duke, explaining the story of what happened to his previous wife whilst looking at her picture. Both the poems use imagery and other poetic devices but in different ways. The first uses them more often to impress her. The second uses them in a

said to her was true she would live with him and be his love. However

The second poem is another love poem ‘The Passionate Shepherd To His Love’ by Christopher Marlowe. There are many similarities and differences between the two poems. Both poems are love poems aimed at women, and both are trying to persuade. In ‘To His coy Mistress’ the poem is split into a thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis and is attempting t persuade a woman to give up her virginity. ‘Passionate Shepherd’ is set into a series of four line long stanzas which form an ideal rural world where a man wants his love to live with him.

Andrew Marvell's elaborate sixteenth century carpe diem poem, 'To His Coy Mistress', not only speaks to his coy mistress, but also to the reader. Marvell's suggests to his coy mistress that time is inevitably rapidly progressing and for this he wishes for her to reciprocate his desires and to initiate a sexual relationship. Marvell simultaneously suggests to the reader that he or she should act upon their desires as well, to hesitate no longer and seize the moment before time, and ultimately life, expires. Marvell makes use of allusion, metaphor, and grand imagery in order to convey a mood of majestic endurance and innovatively explicate the carpe diem motif.

Debora B. Schwartz in her article, "Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Comedy" highlights the fact that the major themes which are typically discussed in pastoral poetry include: "love and seduction;… the corruption of the city or court vs. the ‘purity’ of idealized country life…" (par. 2). In the poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," the theme of the "'purity' of idealized country life" is explored when the male persona attempts to use words which conjure up images of an paradise which he and his love interest can escape to sexually gratify each other. The male persona entices his love interest to "come live" with him and be his love (l. 1). He desires that he and his lover's "prove" the various "pleasures" that "woods or steepy mountain yields" (ll. 2, 4). This argument is rebuffed by the female persona in the poem, "The Nymph's Reply to Her Husband," when she states the following: "Time drives the flocks from field to fold, /When rivers rage and rocks grow cold" (ll. 5-6). It should be noted that these lines reflect the following lines of Marlowe's poem: "And we will sit upon the rocks, / seeing the shepherds feed their flocks/ by shallow rivers…" (ll. 5-7). The female persona undermines the shepherd's idealization of the countryside and pastoral life since the passage of time, depicted by the seasons, will change the characteristics of these things described so positively by the male persona in Marlowe's poem.

     I really like this poem because it makes me want to get out of bed in the morning or turn off the television and do something productive like read a book, or go to the gym. It perfectly reveals the true meaning of carpe diem. The very first sentence alone tells me to get things done while I can. Now when I think of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, it will remind me of carpe diem, which will make me want to make every minute of my day account for something good whether it be reading a chapter

Carpe Diem is another major theme never found in courtly love poetry, but rather in cavalier. Cavalier poets urge young lovers to “seize the day”, enjoy the present moment because youth and beauty will fade soon and forever. The theme of brevity of life also serves the carpe diem, since the best in life ends “Corinna’s Going a Maying” insists on enjoying youth and love and not to be shy, because all pleasures of life come to an end when death comes. [Cavalier poets did not take life seriously, because this life is too short, so one should enjoy it.

Christopher Marlowe, a 1500 poet, wrote many heartwarming poems, but I'm going to use “the passionate shepherd to his love” to compare to a modern day poet and R&B singer John Legend’s song All of me. Also to give a different view of style Ima add John Donne “the flea” in the mix. First of all, these pieces all have one common theme, love. The flea uses a lot of hidden meaning to express his love but also you get the idea he just wants a physical connection of love, sex. The imagery of “the flea” is more complex and creative than “the passionate shepherd to his love” and All of me. John D.