Carpe Diem poems push an agenda: the poet feels his pet project is so important that he urges his readers to make haste because time is flying.
Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” urges young unmarried woman to hurry up and get married before they become old hags. The short lyric consists of four stanzas, each with the rime scheme of ABAB.
First Stanza: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”
The command, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” contains a perverse irony, considering that the speaker of the poem is advising young women to marry, an act that would result in their deflowering. Nevertheless, the reader is supposed to think of “rosebuds” as a metaphor for marriage, possibly even the nosegay of flowers held by the bride as she meets the groom to take vows.
Then the speaker tells the virgins that those same rosebuds that are so beautiful now will not last long; as a matter of fact, “To-morrow” they “will be dying.” Of course, at this point the reader also realizes that “rosebuds” also refers to the youth of the young women, who are like sweet flowers but will grow into dried up old weeds in time, and then no man will want them.
Second Stanza: “The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun”
In the second stanza, the speaker rather redundantly refers to the sun: first he metaphorically describes the star as “the glorious lamp of heaven” but then adds the literal term ”the sun”—this is an obvious ploy to pit a rime into the third line.
But the speaker is now making the point that even though the time of day is showing that the sun is getting higher, yet even the sun’s “race” will soon “be run” and he will set. He is comparing the life of the virgin to the sun: the higher the sun gets in the sky, the closer he is to setting. The older the virgin gets, the closer she is to old age, when she will no longer be bright and sparkling like the sun overheard.
Third Stanza: “That age is best which is the first”
Then the speaker expresses the belief that youth is the best age to be; in youth the “blood” is “warmer.” And after youth is gone, middle age and old age which are “worse” and “worst” respectively will seem to drag on and on. And even though the virgins continue to live, these worst times grow unimaginably dull for old unmarried women, in the opinion of the speaker.
Fourth Stanza: “Then be not coy, but use your time”
Therefore, the speaker commands these young women not be choosy, not to “be coy” but go ahead and get married while they are still young and pretty enough to attract a man. And he warns them that if they wait and find themselves past “[their] prime,” they will simply have to linger in limbo for what will seem an eternity.
