"To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" Explication

               Before I start explicating this poem, I must make a disclaimer. I am not sure if this is important but I read the very first line of “To the Virgins” and knew that I had to write about it. This poem by Robert Herrick was the first poem that Professor John Keating teaches his students in Peter Weir’s film Dead Poets Society. That film is monumental to me to say the least and to see the poem in this chapter made me very motivated to explicate. Now that I got that probably useless information out there, I will actually start the assignment.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time is a poem filled with symbolism, metaphors, and imagery all pertaining to acting on impulses in the moment. The speaker is explaining how “Old Time is still a-flying” and we must “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”. The rosebuds create a symbol of youth and love while his statement about time could be a metaphor, stating that life will not go on forever. The two go hand in hand and one could also say the youth and love may not last forever.  He concludes the first stanza with “And this same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying”. It seems like Herrick is pertaining to a female in his poem because of the flower imagery. He ends the stanza almost on a depressing tone, saying that even though we keep living day by day, we are also getting closer to death and old age.

The next stanza continues with nature symbolism but this time among males. Herrick describes men as the sun getting higher and higher and then eventually setting. “The sooner will his race be run, and nearer he’s to setting”. Eventually men will pass on as well and it contributes to his point that men and women should just spend the time having sex and being adventurous before it is too late.

Age is very much emphasized, especially when the narrator talks about the impending tomorrow. He also emphasizes youth and the importances of discovering these pivotal ecstasies of life while men and women are still agile and carefree. “The age is best which is the first, when youth and blood are warmer” is how he begins his stanza and then quickly switches to a more almost ominous tone by concluding it with “Time still succeed the former”. He justifies his previous claim that even if you spend your life and adolescence doing other activities time will still be inevitable.

The last stanza sums up and reiterates what he has been trying to achieve all along in this poem. The last two lines are especially profound, “For having lost but once your prime, you may forever tarry”. These words of wisdom or perhaps a warning signal instructs to “virgins” that one must be aware of their time alive and not dwell or inhabit coy reservations. As John Keating in Dead Poets Society states, “We are food for worms, lads”. That is the overarching argument that Herrick makes and he makes it very well known among his first couple of lines. We might as well live as we want to. Carpe Diem.