“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”: Robert Herrick’s Urgent Advice

            Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” uses strong diction and tone to address young women to choose marriage create clear meanings.  The “carpe diem” meaning promotes marriage as the goal for women of a certain age.  Also, the traditional and patriarchal meaning believes that women should get married if they want to be truly women and be happy. 

Moreover, the speaker looks at the virgins like they are flowers, sensitive and fragile, and urges them to act quickly because “tomorrow will be dying.”  He uses other clear diction to indicate what the virgins should do: “gather ye rose-buds while ye may” (1). In addition to this case, he asserts that for the virgin’s time will be taken away if they do not use it wisely: “But being spent, the worse, and worst” (10). 

Eventually, after describing his deep concerns to the virgins, the speaker reminds the virgins how to use their time to avoid regrets and depresses in the rest of their lives: “for having lost but once your prime” and ”you may nor ever tarry” (15-16).  As the same time he suggests strongly that these virgins are vulnerable, wonderful and have a very short time to seize their happiness; therefore, he advises all virgins to marry soon if they do not want to feel regret.  Based on this advice, the poet’s tone seems so subjective because he thinks that marriage can guarantee the virgins’ happiness.   

Clearly, the speaker chooses words that suggest the speaker is saying that the virgins are vulnerable and fresh.  For example, the poet uses the traditional metaphor of “rose-bud” to metaphor that the virgins are like “rose-buds,” which are not only love and romance, but also young and fragrant.  Also, the diction in the third line seems to personify the flowers can smile and laugh just like a human or a virgin: “And this same flowers that smiles today” (3).  Here, the virgins are a metaphor in the diction, “rose-bud” and “flowers,” to emphasize that the virgins are very sensitive and very young.   The tone of the poet in this first stanza seems that he is worry.  He is worry of the situation of the fragile of the virgins who lack of knowledge to understand about life because they are very young and sensitive.

In the next stanza, the speaker still focuses on some specific diction that emphasizes the speaker is stating that the virgins’ time is wonderful when they can get their soul mates.  For example, the poet invokes: “The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun” (4) as a metaphor that for the sun is a sparkling lamp in heaven, just like the virgins are a sparkling woman in a world.  Also, in this stanza, personification in the line: “The sooner will his race be run” (6) wants to personify the sun can run and race like a human.  The speaker continues to remind the virgins to use their time quickly till they get their loves: “And the nearer he’s to setting” (8).  Therefore, the poet’s tone reminds the virgins to use their time well when it comes to choosing a male to accompany them in spending the rest of their life and do not let the wonderful time passed away. 

The urgent tone of the second stanza continues, the speaker tries to give advice to the virgins that they must take the advantage of their golden time and do not let it becomes distraught. For example, the poet tells us: “when youth and blood are warmer” to emphasize that youth and blood are life, whereas the cold is related to death.  It means that the virgins are in a new and warm life just like a fresh food, so that they must eat their supper soon because soon it will be cold. The poet continues to select strong words to stress his attitude toward the virgins should not let their time becomes severe without any spouse in their life: “But being spent, the worse, and worst” (9).  Based on these strong dictions, the poet’s tone seems to remind the virgins that they have a very short time and should not let it become useless. 

Concisely, the speaker continues to use strong diction to convince the virgins.  He states his other important suggestions to the virgins; how to behave in their short time, and how to avoid their crying because of their faults.  For example, the speaker promotes the words “then be not coy, but use your time” (12) to make the virgins aware to not be shy because they will lose their chance to seize their loves, just be open minded and try to welcome every love that comes to them.  Again, in the next line, the speaker tries to continue to convince the virgins to get marry soon:  “and while ye marry, go marry” (13).  Also, the speaker claims that the virgins must be aware of their youth, which they have only once: “For having lost but once your prime.”  Here, the speaker retells the virgins that their time will never come twice.  Therefore, he wants to make sure that the virgins will not feel lonely and lament in their future life.   The speaker’s attitude toward the virgins is that they should not be shy and must get married to seize their happiness if they do not want to feel regret.  

In short, the poet’s tone toward the virgins is care and concern.  For example, the images of “coy,” “lost,” and “tarry” show the speaker’s care toward the virgins’ time and attitude.  He really cares to the virgins by reminding them that they should not be shy to seize their own happiness.  Also, they should not be lost their valuable chance to grab their truly love.  Other examples, the images of “marry,” and “prime” show the speaker’s concern to the virgins’ lives.  He thinks being married will make the virgins happier than being a single.  He also thinks that the prime time is the only time to get a man. Therefore, the virgins should not be late to get their men when they are in the peak time.  He really cares and concerns on the virgins lives, so he gives them some advice how to make their young, old, and future lives happier. 

William Blake's London: Bleak City

William Blake’s “London” (1714) describes a city on the edge of disaster.  The London depicted in poem is a depressed and horrible city.  Historical London at the time had complex and complicated problems where monarchal power is dictating, while, on the other hand, people are suffering.  One of the ways in which Blake portrays London as in crisis is through the use of images of weakness and despair.  London is described as a depressed city, where the people living there are sad and unsatisfied with their surroundings.  For example, in the first stanza, Blake says “And mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe” (3-4).  A reader understands that the people who live in this London are distraught.  They feel hopeless and useless to themselves, their family, and to their country. 

Moreover, through the image of the words “crying,” “blood”, and “manacle,” London is described as a terrible city, since everyone is crying, and even the “hapless” soldiers just accept the horrible things as normal occurrence because they do not know and cannot imagine any other life.  According to Blake, “In every cry of every man, in every Infant’s cry of fear,” there is woe.  There is something horrible in the city that makes people pessimistic and feels no future.  An image like “the hapless Soldier’s sign runs in blood” (11) questions how the soldier can protect his people in these dire circumstances.  Eventually, from the imagery of “Harlot” and “hearse”, London is described as a dangerous city: “How the youthful Harlot’s curse, And blights with plagues the marriage hearse”, the reader imagines that in the city, there are some young women who earn a living as whores.  If a husband has a sexual intercourse with them, they will contract a disease that can be past to their wives and their children.  This kind of habit can jeopardize people’s personal lives.  

William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew vs. John Fletcher’s The Woman’s Prize

            These two books are plays written early in the seventeenth century, William Shakespeare’s The Taming of The Shrew and John Fletcher’s The Woman’s Prize. Each depicts female characters, one of whom supports the masculine paradigm, while the other undermines it.  The plays also tell about the relationship between a husband and a wife in a family.  In The Taming of the Shrew, the wife, Katherine, is dominated by the husband, Petruchio, while, on the other hand in The Woman’s Prize, the husband, Petruchio (the same character), is dominated by the wife, Maria.  The difference between the two plays is that Shakespeare’s The Shrew has a pro patriarchal theme, whereas Fletcher’s The Prize has an anti-patriarchal theme. 

William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is the story about how to tame a shrewish woman, Katherine, who is an elder daughter of Baptista, a gentleman of Padua.  Katherine is depicted as a wild and sarcastic woman who needs to be taught to be a gorgeous woman as society demanded at the time.  Petruchio is depicted as a macho man, and he comes to Padua both to propose to Kate and to tame her.  

John Fletcher’s The Woman’s Prize is an inverted story from Shakespeare’s The Taming of The Shrew in which the tamer is tamed.  After Kate died because of her submissive marriage, Petruchio married again to his second wife, Maria, who is teaching Petruchio to be a tamed husband, just like Petruchio did to Kate before.  Maria withholds sex from Petruchio on her wedding night in order to conquer him.  There are some tricks Maria uses to defeat Petruchio, such as demanding Petruchio sign a marital contract and she pretends to cheat on Petruchio.  Eventually, Maria wins the game so that Petruchio is willing to sign the marriage contract, and to treat his wife better.  At the same time Maria promises Petruchio to be his perfect wife.

These two books are interesting because they provide an editor’s introduction, Sympa Callaghan in The Shrew, and Celsea R. Daileader in The Prize.  Both of them explain more about these plays, especially for today’s students who have difficulties in reading old English from sixteenth century.  Callaghan and Daileader write a brief history of the plays in their introductions.  They mention some scholar’s opinions about the plays. For example Daileader states that The Prize is “the misogynist rhetoric that likens women to animals, particularly horses, to be tamed and ridden by men” (16).    

The difference between the two plays is Fletcher’s play demonstrates an anti-patriarchal theme, where his heroine, Maria, is depicted as a vocal woman who can gather a troupe of other women who lock themselves in a chamber upstairs with food and wine.  In protesting against a patriarchal system,  Daileader explains how Maria succeeded in leading a rebellion against her tyrannous husband, Petruchio  (10).  Fletcher is showing his character having a more extensive and aware identity than the Shakespeare’s character, Kate in The Taming of the Shrew.

These plays also show unrecognized insights into the complex gender and marital relationships of the plays.  The Taming of The Shrew makes Kate unpleasant, which allows her husband, Petruchio, to punish her, so the audience can feel that she deserves to be treated improperly, which is against the feminist paradigm.  According to Dolan, marriage was represented in the early modern period as a struggle for dominance in which violence was the fundamental arbiter (165).  Especially in Shrew, one is dominated and one dominates.  Petruchio controls everything about Kate’s life, and Kate has no rights to decide. The marriage here, is described as a violent relationship between a wife and husband. Kate and Petruchio are depicted as combating sexes where there is almost no more proper communication except violence and physical domination of a husband who controls everything about his wife, including food, clothes, and money.

Fletcher’s play attempts to subvert Shakespeare’s depiction of marriage by criticizing the masculine paradigm which creates domestic rules for women. Fletcher describes a wife who controls the husband and behaves counter to the masculine tyranny that other woman of her era experience.  In The Woman’s Prize, the marital relationship is egalitarian, which allows Maria as a wife to make her own decisions. In The Taming of the Shrew, Kate is under her husband’s control.  Fletcher’s  Petruchio is in contrast to the Petruchio of The Taming of The Shrew wherein he controls everything.  But the Petruchio of The Woman’s Prize does not have the power he had in his first marriage since his second wife, Maria, made a bargain with him to provide her the power and authority to have the same rights as his to control the family.

Fletcher was willing to assert an anti-patriarchal theme because he did not like how English men from higher society treated women at the time.  For example, there were some girls who were not virgins anymore on their first wedding night because wealthy men had taken their virginity first.  Fletcher wanted to criticize his society.  He wrote The Prize, depicting the setting in London, whereas Shakespeare chose Padua as setting in the Shrew.  The reason Fletcher moved the setting is because he wanted to move from the village, which was a traditional view, to the city of London, which was a modern view.  He tried to make an elites realize that the old view of treating women improperly was not effective anymore.  Women have rights to be treated well.  Thus, he created his heroine, Maria, as a leader to conduct a revolt against a patriarchal system that was very powerful at the time.  

Another reason Fletcher supports an anti-patriarchal system is his protest against the misogynistic elements in the society and in the play at the time.  Modern audience and readers had debated, and controversy was developed as to misogyny in early modern English literature.  Especially in the Shrew, we can see some misogyny examples that depict Kate as a shrewish woman whom no men are willing to marry because of her wild and sarcastic verbosity.  In spite of this, Petruchio succeeded in taming her.  The act of taming can be linked to the taming of an animal. According to Daileder, “the misogynist rhetoric … likens women to animals, particularly horses, to be tamed and (sexually) ‘ridden’ by men” (16).  Therefore, women are associated with animals that can be fed and clothed at men’s discretion.  

By contrasting the two plays, the Shrew and the Prize, we can understand that in the Shrew,  misogyny is a central theme of the play, but in the Prize, the theme is anti-patriarchal . Even though they have similar themes,  the battle of the sexes between a wife and husband, the plot is described in different ways and purposes.  In the Shrew, the woman, Kate is passive and is silent and hidden to protest the male supremacy in marriage.  But in the Prize, the woman, Maria is active and gathers other women in rebellion to protest  male supremacy in marriage.  Therefore, The Shrew is rich with traditional perspective, which is  pro patriarchal , whereas The Prize is rich with more modern perspective, which is an anti-patriarchal.

I strongly recommend these books with their excellent introductions, especially for literature students, to get insight into Shakespeare’s and Fletcher’s works, which are not only romances but also in the social comedy genre. This book is published by Manchester University Press in 2006 with the price $12.00, and ISBN: 719053676 paperback.