To The Virgins To Make Much Of Time By Robert Herrick

For many years all around the world men dominate woman controlling every aspect of their life, even in today’s society, unfortunately this dominance in a way still present, Men are seen as providers and head of households while woman are simply viewed as nurturers. In the short stories “Virgins” by Danielle Evens and “Man and Wife” by Katie Chase demonstrates a culture of male dominance and the depreciation of woman.

In a society in which sex only seems to be a part of growing up, a girl gives in to her desire and later questions if it was really what she wanted or was she just letting herself because of the society and environment that she lives in. Daniel Evans wrote a story named “Virgins” which revolves around two girls named Erica and Jasmine, and their friend Michael. These three friends live in a society where having sex is not something uncommon and more like expected, but Erica believes and does otherwise, as she remains a virgin because she claims that men are not to be trusted. However; at the end, Erica gives in and has sex with Michael’s brother, Don, and later on attempts to have sex with Michael, realizing he was the one she wanted all along.

“Virgins,” a short story by Danielle Evans is a coming of age tale that details the arduous journey of upcoming womanhood taken by a young girl and her friend. This young girl is named Erica and her friend is named Jasmine they are both black teenaged girls living in a lower income neighborhood. As one reads, the question emerges of how Evans presents a commentary on the issues that girls on the verge of womanhood must overcome, appears. What aspects must be portrayed to fully paint a picture into this world? Danielle Evans uses teenage ideals of self worth, themes of maturity, and a common disregard of morals to present a commentary on the issues girls on the verge of womanhood must overcome to fully prosper.

Reading Response to “Looking at Women” written by Scott Russell Sanders is an article about Sanders

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) said this famous quote at his first inaugural address, when he took one of the most important jobs in the world, becoming the president of the United States. He then went on to do what no other president had done before―be elected for more than two terms. The people elected Franklin for four consecutive terms during one of the nation’s hardest times, and he and his wife helped pull the nation to its feet. This period of World War II is captured in the biography No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The author uses countless interviews to piece together the perspective of the home front from

Bailey, Beth. Sex in the Heartland. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1999.

The most notable aspect of Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides would be its first person-plural narrative voice. Literary scholars have often addressed the issue of the narrative voice and the effect that having multiple narrators has on the story. In her article ‘A story we could live with’ Narrative voice, the Reader, and Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides Debra Shostak addresses how the “we” inadvertently draws attention to the “otherness” of the Lisbon girls. She attempts to dispel the belief that The Virgin Suicides is a misogynistic text by analyzing Eugenides’s complicated use of the word “we”. Shostak’s article gives deep insight into the complexities of the plural narrative and provides a foundation for future analysis of the text. However, what Shostak does not address is how this perception of otherness, by both the narrators and the community in which they reside, ultimately leads to the downfall of the Lisbon sisters. My argument is twofold. Firstly, I will address how the perception by the narrators that the girls are radically different from themselves and their community, combined with the tendency to group the girls as a single monolithic entity serves as one explanation for the girls deaths. Treating the girls as though they are the same person leads to the perceived inevitability of their deaths, which ultimately plays a vital role in their untimely and fatal ends.

Herrick states that the pursuit of enjoyable experiences should be the primary concern of those with youth as this is the only time in their lives that they will be able to attain such a high degree of joy. The author depicts the speaker as an older person who is trying to convince individuals with youth to forgo any risk and not worry about the future. To this effect the speaker uses nature and its seasons to convince the reader that youth should be used to acquire as many joyful experiences as possible. To do this, the speaker implores to the youths that “Old time is still a-flying” (Herrick 2) and that “Tomorrow will be dying” (Herrick 4). Herrick also uses his rhyme scheme to emphasize the natural and simplicity of his argument. The author instills a sense of interconnectivity between the genders by using both Masculine and Feminine rhymes sequentially and thus “Herrick moves in directions that challenge accepted gender configurations.” (Landrum 205). The simplicity of the rhyme scheme, ABAB, instills the reader with a sense of easiness and flow to the author’s argument further emphasizing that carpe diem should be the utmost importance. Furthermore, by internally rhyming “That age is the best which is the first” (Herrick 9) the consonance draws the reader to the line and emphasizes the message that being the first to “seize the day” is the best. All in all, Herrick used both nature symbolism and simplistic rhyme scheme

In the article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” Anne-Marie Slaughter explains why women can’t manage both the difficulties of a high-end job while doing the best they can as a parent. Slaughter is a very successful women who had worked for Hillary Clinton at the state department being the first woman policy planner. She begins the essay by explaining a conversation that came up between herself and a colleague who held a senior position in the White House. She tells her colleague that is has been very difficult for her to be away from her son at work, when he needs her at home. At this point Slaughter comes up with the idea to write an article about these struggles she and many women are dealing with. Throughout this meeting Slaughter

Published in 1997, Marie Howe’s anthology of poems, What the Living Do was written as an elegy to her brother, John, who passed away due to AIDS. Howe’s anthology is written without metaphor to document the loss she felt after her brother’s death. Although What the Living Do is written as an anthology, this collection allows for individual poems to stand alone but also to work together to tell an overarching story. Using the poetic devices of alliteration, enjambment, repetition and couplets, Howe furthers her themes of gender and loss throughout her poems in her anthology.

“Wish for a Young Wife”, by Theodore Roethke, may seem to be more than just a simple epithalamium, for the way the poet presents his writing compels the reader to question his true intentions. Nevertheless, although it is easy for the reader to trip down this path, a closer reading, in which one pays particular attention to aspects such the poem's imagery, rhyme scheme, meter, and parallelism, allows them to acknowledge that as the poet appreciates his wife and elaborates on what he wants for her, it is in fact the ambiguity of the poem that doubles the effect of his sincerity and love for his young wife.

Emma Goldman was a revolutionary, proselytizer, and above all else a women 's activist. She was conceived in Kovno, Lithuania. She moved with her family to St. Petersburg, Russia (1882), where she worked in a glove production line and assimilated the common radical-progressive thoughts (Chalberg). She emigrated to America (1885), worked in a Rochester, N.Y., article of clothing production line, and was quickly hitched to a kindred specialist. Rankled by the execution of those associated with the Haymarket shelling in Chicago (1886), she started to relate to revolutionaries; she moved to New York City, turned into a supporter of Johann Most, and turned out to be personally required with the revolutionary Alexander Berkman, whom she

Humans are very selfish people, they think of themselves much more frequent then they think about any other parties that might be affected by them. I wish I could say the men are guiltier of this, but women are just as guilty when it comes to being selfish. However, in the two poems To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To the Virgins to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick we see many similarities in their efforts to get with a girl that they like. They both try to convince the girls that they need to live in the now. Also they use word pictures to make their interest, which is getting sex, more understandable and seem less important than it is.

     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

In the poem “To the Indifferent Women” Gilman proposes that women are quite capable of love and keeping peace. She reasons that women are naturally nurturing; which she proposes when referencing them as “Mothers”. My personal experience of being a mother persuades me to agree with Gilman’s stance, that women want to nurture those closest to us. However, she states women are preoccupied with only what is going on in their own homes and social circles keeping their thoughts secluded to just that (805). I recognize that during the time frame, of when this poem was written this very well could be the case, yet in our society today women have taken on a variety of roles. Over the years many changes have transpired as far as a women’s role in today’s