In Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, Herrick writes to youthful virgins, emphasizing that time is quickly passing and they should seize opportunities while they are still young. He is able to illustrate his point with great detail with his use of metaphors from nature. Furthermore, Herrick writes of mortality and death as swiftly approaching, and that the virgins should marry before they are too old, and time has gotten away from them. Herrick uses metaphors and the construction of the poem in a simple yet memorable way to show the importance of seizing youthful opportunities and the paradox of life as it leads to death.
The rhyme and meter of “To Virgins” is fairly simple, just like the message the poem conveys. The rhyme is ABAB format. In each stanza, the final words of the first and third lines rhyme, and the final words of the second and fourth lines rhyme. For example, the final words “may” and “today” rhyme from lines one and three, respectively, and this pattern carries on throughout the poem. The simplicity of the rhyme pattern is fundamental to the message. Herrick does not complicate the poem with tricky phrasing or word-play to create rhymes, but keeps the rhyme clean and to the point, making his message memorable. Herrick uses seemingly opposite rhyming words to highlight his ideas like “a-flying” and “dying” or “marry” and “tarry”, while maintaining cohesiveness and simplicity.
The meter is also somewhat straightforward, with the odd lines being in iambic tetrameter, meaning each line has four feet containing one unstressed and one stressed syllable, with the exception of the first foot in line 1 which contains a trochee instead of an iamb, having one stressed and one unstressed syllable...
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...uth, time, death and mortality; the paradoxes of life bringing about death, and beauty bringing about aging; and, the musicality of the poem as attached to a metaphysical understanding of it. Herrick accomplishes the task of interweaving the emphasis and meaning within the 16 short lines of his poem by employing a masterful control over simple rhyme and structure, with an effective and brilliant result. The transcendence of this poem throughout generations is a testament to its ability to communicate the point, and ironically enough, the reason that it has survived the very test of the time and youth of which the poem speaks, and is studied to this day.
Works Cited
Herrick, Robert. “To Virgins, To Make Much of Time.” 1648. Approaching Literature: Reading + Thinking + Writing. Ed. Peter Shakel and Jack Ridl. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. 819. Print.
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... is romantic and at ease, but he turns brisk and honest as time disintegrates. This image becomes crystal clear with words and phrases such as, "heart", "beauty", "youthful hue sits on thy skin", "our sweetness", "virginity", "breast", and "pleasures". All of these words provide the reader with an illustration of the man's desires. The use of imagery permits the author to fully describe the necessity of time, and allows the reader to visualize the thoughts and feelings that the characters experience.