Examine how poets in the anthology viewed the concept of time and how they presented these views in their poetry.

   ‘'The Sun Rising'’ by John Donne is another example of the concepts of love and its relationship with time presented in the poetry of this anthology. In the opening stanza of the poem, Donne presents the crux of his argument that “must to they motions lovers’ seasons run?” He believes that lovers should not be governed by the rules of time. The rest of the world, the “late schoolboys…court-huntsmen…country ants” all need reminders of the “rags of time”, but love and lovers do not. This view compliments that presented in ‘Sonnet 116’ that “love’s not Time’s fool”, however Donne makes no reference to the changes time produces in the love of the couple and their physical appearance. This represents one of the common ideas among the metaphysical poets that love comes from the soul.

   In ‘To His Coy Mistress’, by Andrew Marvell, the explicit argument conceals a more serious argument about the transitories of pleasure. Marvell uses hyperbolic expansion of the time, “hundred years…two hundred…thirty thousand…an age at least to each part” that he would spend on each area of his lover’s body, “Had we but world enough and time”. His reason for not doing this is that “at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near”. This is a very famous method of visualising time, however his perception of eternity as “Deserts of vast eternity” is an unconventional and highly negative one. This image provides a link between space and time in the poem. Marvell refers to past and future events on a grand scale, such as “the flood” and “the conversion of the Jews” in an attempt to slow the passage of time. This poem has been described as one of “lust” rather than of love. The superficial attraction is highlighted in lines 25-27, as in ‘The Nymph’s Reply’ and contrary to the true love described in ‘Sonnet 116’;

“The beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in they marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song;”

He is only chasing his mistress while she is young and beautiful and “while the youthful hue sits on they skin like morning glow”, once she is dead, her beauty will have died with her and he will have no interest in her. “Desire is found to be quite as ruthless as time”. The narrative voice in this poem suggests that while they can’t stop time, they should “make him run”. He is defiant of time. This poem is an example of the philosophy of ‘carpe diem’. This Latin phrase meaning ‘seize the day’ is particularly evident in the third stanza of the poem. This attitude perceives time as a negative influence, but as one that can be resisted. One of the common interpretations of ‘To Daffodils’ by Robert Herrick is that of a carpe diem poem. Herrick used his poems to philosophise about life and this poem compares people to daffodils and the shortness of life. Herrick also comments on the eroding effect of time on beauty. This poem has been likened to another of Herrick’s poems, ‘To Virgins, to Make Much of Time’. This latter poem is undoubtedly similar to Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’, sharing the ideas of Time and the temporality of youth; a message reinforced in the final quatrain;

“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.”

Although ‘To Daffodils’ is included in the section of Metaphysical Poets in the anthology, Herrick is widely considered to be a Cavalier poet, writing under the rule of Charles I. The cavalier poets were generally supporters of the monarchy. They came from a particular class of men; courtly, genteel and educated, and produced light-hearted, secular poems. Just as the history of this period is shadowed by the darkness of war and persecution, there is often a sense of impending death or decay underlying many of the poems written during this time. They often embody the very essence of the carpe diem philosophy. This poem, by Herrick is less focused around content than Donne’s poetry and that of many other Metaphysical poets; instead it is lyrical. The message in ‘To Daffodils’ is that life is short and that once it is gone, it is “Ne’er to be found again”. This message contrasts with the view of death and particularly eternity that is portrayed in ‘Death, Be Not Proud’.

   While possibly the most famous Metaphysical poet, John Donne used his poems to explore his faith; Henry King’s poem ‘The Exequy’ is surprisingly devoid of the religious aspect to death and grief. This is particularly worth noting; especially considering how religious King himself was, eventually rising to become Bishop of Winchester. Instead, ‘The Exequy’ is a selfish poem, focussing on his grief at the death of his wife. In line 12 of this poem, King rejects the ‘carpe diem’ philosophy seen in several of the other poems in the anthology. Initially, he presents time from a negative viewpoint, bemoaning how “lazily time creeps about” and how “I compute the weary hours With signs dissolved into showers”. This is also one of many examples of the metaphors King uses for crying and tears in this elegy. It has been commented that the “chronological process of mourning is reflected through the content of the poem”. There is a great emphasis on crying and weeping in the opening few stanzas, then reflection and sorry and a feeling of great loss develop as the poem progresses. Grief follows a similar pattern. The extent that the poet considers time to be passing slowly is clear in lines 22 and 23;

“Nor wonder if my time go thus

Backward and most preposterous”

This suggests that his life is going so slowly that it has become inverted and is now going backwards. Using morbid imagery, King looks forward to death as a means of reuniting himself with his dead wife. He wants “to meet thee in that hollow vale”, the valley of death. He consequently perceives time, in the latter stages of the poem, as a positive thing, speeding him towards his goal.  This view of death is contrary to the others presented in the anthology, perceiving it almost as a positive thing.

   While contemplating death as a means of reunification for his “but half a heart”, King considers the concept of eternity, and declares that were death not eternal, “were it a month, a year, or ten, I would thy exile live till then”. Eternity is an idea often considered with time, as the optimum length of time. It is also widely associated with religion and perceptions of heaven and hell, an afterlife for eternity. ‘The World’ by Henry Vaughan has been described as a “wistful brooding over man’s relations with the unseen and the eternal”. The opening seven lines focus particularly on eternity and the “great Ring”. Vaughan shows evidence of knowledge of science and medieval astronomy with his description of a geocentric universe where the “spheres” are the planets that orbit the earth and in doing so, create time. He also suggests that while earth is governed by the rules of time, there is no time in eternity. Time is considered to be a negative factor, limiting the world. Despite the inevitable connections between time and eternity, Vaughan shows himself to be aware of a ‘veil’ separating the two and, through his poetry, he tries to penetrate this separation and heal the breach. In this poem, the poet uses concrete images to describe very abstract images. This is very characteristic of the Metaphysical poets. Marvell, in ‘To His Coy Mistress’, also uses this technique of visualising time.

   The poets and through them, the poems in the anthology provide a wide variety of interpretations of the concept of time. These interpretations vary from the positive to the negative to the philosophical to purely reflective. The concerns of the age can be seen though the presentation of time in the poems spanning the different eras. Many of the earlier poems focus on time’s effect on love and youth. These poems were written during a time when the courtly love traditions were very popular among poets. Love was therefore a common subject for poetry. The traditional image of love is that it defies time, however not all the poems followed this convention; several were more realistic. As poetry evolved into the Metaphysical era, fathered by John Donne, the ideas presented in poetry became more complex and abstract, while following a logical argument. Time, as a complex and abstract image was greatly explored as was eternity and death, but the wide variety of imagery employed by the Metaphysical poets lead to several different perceptions of the concept of time. Most of the poet’s viewed time in relation to its effect on another factor. The presentation of time therefore varied in relation to the perception of this second factor and the personal views of the poet.