Carpe Diem
...whether young or old, that they should live life to the fullest everyday, just as if it would be the last. Two very important writers that have focused on the “carpe diem” theme, was Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to make much of Time.” Both writers use metaphors and the ‘carpe diem’ theme in their writings. In “His Coy Mistress”, Marvell writes “Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness lady were no crime” (414). This metaphor stated that if they had all the time in the world to spend together then he would not be so worried about getting married right away. This is also referred to as “seize the day” and have sex with him right now instead of waiting until they were married. Herrick states “And this came flowers that smile today, tomorrow will be dying” (416). Again, Herrick was using the metaphors and the “carpe diem” in his writing, which was saying that though a man likes a girl in today’s world, tomorrow they may like someone else. Both poets feel that young girls should not take advantage of their youth for they will miss the best part of their lives. T.S. Eliot also justifies Marvell’s beliefs of “carpe diem” in his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Prufrock/Eliot is a man of frustration and loneliness, simply trying to find the meaning of his existence in the world around him. Eliot is reminding himself that time is running out, and with the allusion of Marvell, he is suggesting to live life to the fullest. Eliot speaks of wanting love but there is no time for him because he is afraid of being rejected any longer in life. He is obsessed with time, only because he knows that time is running out on him. Up to this point he has “measured out his life with coffee spoons” to make an attempt to hang on to every moment that passes, even if he does nothing with the few moments that are given to him. The phrase “there will be time” occurs repeatedly, showing yet another allusion to his readers. Prufrock says that there will be time “for the yellow smoke that slides along the street, time “to murder and create”, and time “for a hundred indecisions”. Eliot also states “And after all, would it have been worth while, amid such trivialities, to have squeezed the universe into a ball”, Marvell proposed to do with “His Coy Mistress”. The images of the poem shed some light on Prufrock’s fears. He rarely says what he means or if he is even sure of himself. Instead, like the magic lanter...