Seizing the moment and taking the time to marry while the opportunity is at hand; These are what the poem “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick implies.
The setting, vividly described in the poem, depicts a garden in a classic European background with the day slowly passing by and the sun, assumed as a man, gradually taking its way down the horizon. It signifies and represents a woman with a flower, which after the day would be left alone wilting. In the first stanza, Herrick writes;Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying. The language used in this part of the poem, with its exuberant use of the word “ye” and the eloquent tone it carries, expresses the grandeur of Europe. With the pauses and dashes within words used for emphasis, the author shows the need to take the chance to marry while we are young; before all the time had passed. On the following stanza, Herrick writes;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 stanza implies that a woman, when she reaches the peak of her age, would have to settle down and have her own family.
By that time, she would be choosing the man to marry and settle with. Through this it connects to the theme; whereas a woman, facing the right time to choose a man, should be taking that chance rather than just let it go by. The third stanza says;That age is best, which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer; But being spent, the worse, and worst Times, still succeed the former. Repeating the theme and further supporting the main idea of the poem, this stanza explains why one should choose to marry while he had the vigor of youth. The form of language is quite informal yet it seems to bestow the words with some kind of authority gained from age and experience. In the fourth stanza, Herrick writes; 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.
Waiting. Herrick says here that waiting forever, for something that might never come again, would be the price for forsaking the chance to marry when it was right in your hands. When time have given you the opportunity to marry, he says that you should grab it, letting go of the inhibitions or the natural shyness, for if you just let it go you might end up being one of the old maidens and old unmarried men.
