preview

What Does Carpe Diem Mean

Decent Essays

Life is short, youth is wealth, and opportunities are endless. Time is to be used as an investment. Once a second passes by it is gone forever. The phrase “Carpe diem” means “to seize the day”. This motif plays an enormous role in human lives and in the poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell. The speaker of this poem makes constant references to the passing of time and urges his mistress to “seize the day”. In the first stanza of the poem the speaker says to his mistress “Had we but world enough, and time, / This coyness, lady, were no crime.” He is saying that if they had more time to be together that her “coyness” or shyness wouldn't be a crime. Since time is limited he wants to experience every part of her right now and goes on to

Get Access