In both poems ‘carpe diem’ is prominently associated with the passing of beauty. Both poets emphasis that as time goes by the subject’s beauty will fade. In ‘To his coy mistress’ he writes that if she does not cease to be “coy” and make the most of the time while she is still young and beautiful, time will eventually destroy her beauty. He uses the alliteration of death being linked with her beauty fading, making references to her “quaint honour being turned to dust,” and “the grave.” Her beauty will be lost once she is old or even dead, because of the passing of time. The first part of the poem the writer illustrates how beautiful she is and that if they had all the time in the world then “a hundred years should go to praise,” but he continues, in verse two “at my back I always hear/Times winged chariot hurrying near.” Resuming his train of thought he writes “Thy beauty shall no longer be found”. This reinforces his belief that as time goes by beauty is forever diminished. Thus his argument is that you make the most of your time while you are still young and in your prime
Unlike Herrick, his contemporary, Andrew Marvell, in ‘To his coy mistress’ has an agenda and does not make any attempts at disguising it. “And your quaint honour turn to dust, / and in his ashes all my lust” He evinces no desire for marriage, and such love he has for his mistress is subjunctive. “Perhaps with world enough and time,” “My vegetable love should grow / vaster than empires and more slow;” but without it love does not even enter into the scheme of things. Here we could have a double entendre, Andrew Marvell could be telling a dirty joke, something more risqué, about how his ‘vegetable’ would grow large. Or perhaps he is just using a romantic image.
In ‘To the virgin’ Herrick also refers to the idea of the passing of time being a contributory factor to the passing of beauty. However, Is Herrick’s argument that the passing of time is a contributory factor to the fading of beauty, so different to Marvell’s theory, in that he finds it desirous that the young should marry? He writes “Gather all rosebuds while ye may,” here we know that he is metaphorically referring to the young of the world who have not yet been subjected to the wrath that old age brings; because the rose is still a bud and has not fully bloomed. However, he states that the “flower that smiles today, / tomorrow will be dying.” Here is a blunt image of beauty fading day by day in the perception of a flower. Robert Herrick is very critical of the middle aged and elderly as he writes that the best age to be at “is the first,” because “youth and blood are warmer;” but once you have passed your prime and your youth is gone “worst times, still succeed the former.” Perhaps Herrick is regretting the fact that he wasted his youth and is in some way compelled to warn the youth not to repeat his mistakes, but to “be not coy,” and “use your time,” or they will end up to repent their misspent youth:
“For having lost but once you’re prime, / you may forever tarry,” Although Herrick was talking about young boys and girls. It is more directed to the girls. In this line he is stating that a woman not married before she passes her prime, may never find a husband.
‘Sonnet 18’ one of sequences of love sonnets emphasizes the adulation or praise of the beloved; this has a different theme to the previous two poems and is innocent in it’s portrayal of love and is not so concerned with sex.
In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare totally contradicts the ideas of Andrew Marvell and Robert Herrick. In their poems they emphatically refer to the passing of time being responsible for the passing of beauty. However, Shakespeare’s argument is totally different. Shakespeare is unconcerned with his subject’s physical beauty fading because he believes that something of beauty can last forever. After he has praised his subjects beauty stating as better than a summer’s day, he progresses to say “but thy eternal summer shall not fade,” Here is comparing her to summer, which was a very romantic image. He compares her beauty to that of summer and that it will last forever. Shakespeare has a reason for her beauty not fading and that lies with the poem. He writes “when in eternal lines to time thou grow’st” he is saying that the subject’s beauty will remain in the poem because the poem is beautiful and its beauty will not fade.
“So long as men can breath or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”
The poem will be read by men and as long as they can breathe and see they will be able to read the poem. Shakespeare is conveying that because the poem is beautiful and we desire beautiful things in our lives, the poem will always be read, immortalising her beauty forever. Shakespeare has thus discovered everlasting beauty in the immortal lines of a poem. This is effective because these last two lines are extremely powerful in summing up what Shakespeare has been saying throughout his poem.
The last theme I will be dealing with is imagery and beauty in the context of imagery.
The first two lines of ‘To the virgins’ “gather ye rosebuds while ye may,/ old time is still a flying” we all know and can appreciate a rosebud’s delicate beauty and similarly also know how soon it can wither and die. Also the use of the word flying speeds up the context, and literally makes us believe how time is only a fleeting moment. In the second verse he speaks of the swift rise and fall of the sun in its daily course. Here Herrick is using a visual image in order to make the reader truly grasp the concept of how quick life can pass you by. Everyone who has lived a day can empathise with his concept of how quickly a day can pass. Therefore, he has used a common image from which his readers can comprehend to draw a comparison and an understanding that our youth is like the sun, our youth may come and go as quickly as the rising and setting of the sun.
In ‘to the virgins’ imagery is believable and convincing to the reader, because he is not directing his poem for his own benefits or to get a woman. But he is using powerful images to tech the youth. However, in ‘to his coy mistress’ Marvell is directing his poem at a female, and is seeking a reward, so his is tactics to scare her and too subdue into bed. Therefore we may not be able to trust his point of view. For instance the title that he has chosen ‘To his coy mistress’ implies a certain falseness, as the word ‘coy’ suggests an almost an insincere form of modesty and it indicates that his mistress assumes an air of false coyness in order to gain assurance of his feelings towards her for her own validation. He then has the audacity to say that her coyness is a “crime” which is a clever use of irony and it is an attempt to make her feel like a criminal. He tells her that she would go the “Ganges” and he would be at the “tide of Humber” complaining. The point of this illustration was that the Indian Ganges at that time was an exotic and romantic place, and could only be visited if a long and arduous journey was taken to the other side of the world. It forms a sharp contrast to the “tide of the Humber” which is a rather boring and dismal place in the north of England by comparison... He states that he would love her “ten years before the flood” and if she refused she could keep on doing so until “the conversion of the Jews” This is a biblical references where the poet points out that he would love her 10 years before the flood that destroyed the world and until the Jews are converted which is highly unlikely. This is all done to emphasis the magnitude to which he would love her if the had enough time, reflecting a Christian society but, however, is also ironic since what he desires is sinful.
The poet tries hard to create the image of himself as a committed and patient lover with promises of eternal love. However, he proceeds to refer to his love as harmless as “vegetable love.” Although this is a metaphor and he infact could be describing his love as something that is out of control, because nature is supposed to be controlled. However it is more likely that he is using an erotic image here. Here we now have a main difference from ‘to his coy mistress’ in comparison to Sonnet 18 “vegetable love” is nothing to do with real and divine love, it is love in its most basic form – sex. He further writes “A hundred hears should go to praise thine eyes and on the forehead gaze; two hundred to adore each breast; but thirty thousand to the rest” proving that his love is more about her body than her beauty, these lines are all about the external beauty and all the things that can pass and fade away. In the second stanza he writes “but at my back I always hear, times winged chariot hurrying near” Here, by personifying time he almost brings the finiteness of it to life by making it seem like the end is ever looming in the not to distant future.
The poet finally admits that his previous promise of love until the conversion of the Jews is a lie and his lust will die with the loss of her “quaint honour”. The use of alliteration “private place” emphasises the loneliness of death in hopes she will seek as much company from him while she can. In the final stanza he conjures up all his intelligence, wit and tactics for one last attempt to sway his lover
“Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew”
This compliment is nearly a double-edged because although he likens her youthful hue to that of the morning dew, it must be remembered that the dew evaporates very quickly. For Marvell’s final the lover ends on an almost righteous note in an attempt to portray time as the evening and himself as its potential victim. The poem can be summed up by the fact it is all about superficial beauty which does not last and will fade with time. In sharp contrast to this Shakespeare’s poem ‘sonnet 18’
The imagery in Sonnet 18 is in total contrast to that of ‘To his coy mistress’ and ‘to the virgins’. The imagery that Shakespeare relies upon the cycle of a year, starting with spring and the blossoming and growth. Summer represents beauty. Autumn when we are getting older and beauty fades and finally winter and things die. By the use of the words “rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,” leads us to the belief that the rough winds are the summer’s imperfections whilst implying that there are none in the young man. Shakespeare tries to tell us that although summer is nice when it comes around, it only lasts for “too short a date”. By saying “The eye of heaven,” creates a sense of divine power and thus makes the man seem god like. Shakespeare attempts to turn what are generally positive things into negatives – he’s reversing the idea of getting warmth from the sun. Subsequently he is forming a contrast of the summer against the man.
Line nine starts the resolution of the poem by using a conjunctive “but.” “Eternal summer, on the same line, is referring back to the mans eternal beauty, using summer to symbolize beauty, and saying his beauty will never fade like the summers beauty. At the end of the poem the rhyming couplet brings the whole poem to a contended still. He is fundamentally saying that as long as the poem is read, the mans splendour will never fade away, because every time the poem is read they will be reminded of the mans beauty. Here we can recognise a biblical reference because Jesus once said “as long as you have eyes to see and ears to hear you can teach about me.”
So as Jesus’ is still remembered thousands of years after his death, because of teachings. So too has Shakespeare’s, his subjects beauty will always live on.