Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
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.
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.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry :
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.
This is a wonderful poem. It has a somewhat twisted element to it. Wait to marriage to have sex? Or go for it when you are young and youthful?
[You must keep in mind that the poem is being delivered by a man to a virgin(s).] Though women are more valuable as virgins, virgins become less valuable with age. To wed young ensures you a husband, waiting may cause you to never be married-to lose your retail value. The author’s urgency in the matter is obvious and uses comparisons to death (dying flowers) to emphasize this.
I think you’re taking Herrick WAY too seriously here… he was a playful author and this is a playful poem. Not about patriarchal society and the vcalue of virginity, but about a guy who wants to get into a girl’s pants and is trying to convince her that it’s OK. I mean, read The Vine which has no subtlety about it at all, or A Sweet Disorder in the Dress in which he’s not being quite so obvious, but it’s all about sex and desire. Not that Marvell isn’t also considering virginity and its value (that’s the paradox of “But being spent, the worse, and worst / Times still succeed the former.”
A brother poem, of course, would be To His Coy Mistress
carpe diam and seize the day. that is what this poem is truly about. watch dead poets society and maybe you will understand the meaning of that phrase.
seize the day.