{"id":299,"date":"2019-04-24T06:55:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T06:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp01.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=299"},"modified":"2019-05-20T04:07:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T04:07:43","slug":"carpe-diem","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp01\/chapter\/carpe-diem\/","title":{"rendered":"Carpe Diem"},"content":{"raw":"
\"epgp<\/a>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n

General Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

In this module the Carpe Diem will be discussed at length, which means \u2017seize the day\u2018. It lays emphasis on the \u2017enjoyment of the day\u2018 because we get human life just for once. This human life itself is very short. Poets like Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, Ben Jonson, Thomas Campion, Thomas Carew, Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, William Shakespeare, Robert Harrick, and Andrew Marvell composed some remarkable carpe diems. The module will throw light on some well known carpe diems composed by some extremely gifted poets.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Carpe diem is originally a Latin term which is used as an admonition to capture the rapture of the moment without concern for the future.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Carpe + Diem = Carpe Diem.<\/p>\r\n

I\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I<\/p>\r\n

Seize + Day = Seize the Day.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Horace, an eminent Roman poet used this term in his odes. In Odes, Book1, and Number11 he writes: \u2017Spem longam reseces. dum loq uimur fugerit invida aetas : carpe diem , quam minimum credula postero\u2019.<\/em> Which means \u2015to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have (already) fled: seize the day trusting as little as possible in the next (day) [\/ future].\u2016 The ode conveys us the message of Horace that the future is unexpected or unforeseen so one must enjoy the life only today. Carpe Diem also defines the \u2017destructiveness of all devouring time\u2018.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Sir Walter Ralegh (1552 \u2013 1618), one of the leading personalities at the court of Queen Elizabeth also tried his pen on Carpe Diem. In his poem entitled \u2017Nature, That Washed Her Hands\u2018, he portrayed time as destroyer and addressed it as \u2017cruel time\u2018:<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

But time (which nature doth despise<\/p>\r\n

And rudely gives her love the lie,<\/p>\r\n

Makes hope a fool, and sorrow wise,<\/p>\r\n

His hands do neither wash nor dry;<\/p>\r\n

But being made of steel and rust,<\/p>\r\n

Turns show and silk and milk to dust.<\/p>\r\n

The light, the bulky, lips and breath,<\/p>\r\n

He dims, discolours, and destroys;<\/p>\r\n

With those he feeds but fills not death,<\/p>\r\n

Which sometimes were the food of joys.<\/p>\r\n

Yea, time doth dull each lively wit,<\/p>\r\n

And dries all wantonness with it.<\/p>\r\n

Oh, cruel time! Which takes in trust<\/p>\r\n

Our youth, our joys, and all we have,<\/p>\r\n

And pays us but with age and dust;<\/p>\r\n

Who in the dark and silent grave<\/p>\r\n

When we have wandered all our ways<\/p>\r\n

Shuts up the story of our days.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey composed a poem entitled Brittle Beauty on the theme of Carpe Diem. Beauty is short lived and frail. This poem is also known as The Frailty and Hurtfulness of Beauty.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Brittle beauty, that Nature made so frail,<\/p>\r\n

Whereof the gift is small, and short the season;<\/p>\r\n

Flowering to-day, to-morrow apt to fail;<\/p>\r\n

Tickle treasure, abhorred of reason:<\/p>\r\n

Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail;<\/p>\r\n

Costly in keeping, past not worth two peason;<\/p>\r\n

Slipper in sliding, as is an eel's tail;<\/p>\r\n

Hard to obtain, once gotten, not geason:<\/p>\r\n

Jewel of jeopardy, that peril doth assail;<\/p>\r\n

False and untrue, enticed oft to treason;<\/p>\r\n

Enemy to youth, that most may I bewail;<\/p>\r\n

Ah! bitter sweet, infecting as the poison,<\/p>\r\n

Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken;<\/p>\r\n

To-day ready ripe, tomorrow all to-shaken.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n

Thomas Campion also contributed some precious Carpe Diems to the English poetry. His poem My Sweetest Lesbia again expresses his desire to find and enjoy love before the time of death. My Sweetest Lesbia by Thomas Campion \u2017is in the style of the Roman Poet Catullus \u2017a rather bawdy poet whose works are generally toned down in translation. Catullus, if he was anything like his poems, certainly seized the day\u2018. (http:\/\/www.theotherpages.org\/poems\/subjIdx\/carpe \u2026.)<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\r\n

My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love,<\/p>\r\n

And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,<\/p>\r\n

Let us not weigh them. Heaven's great lamps do dive<\/p>\r\n

Into their west, and straight again revive,<\/p>\r\n

But soon as once set is our little light,<\/p>\r\n

Then must we sleep one ever-during night.<\/p>\r\n

If all would lead their lives in love like me,<\/p>\r\n

Then bloody swords and armour should not be;<\/p>\r\n

No drum nor trumpet peaceful sleeps should move,<\/p>\r\n

Unless alarm came from the camp of love.<\/p>\r\n

But fools do live, and waste their little light,<\/p>\r\n

And seek with pain their ever-during night.<\/p>\r\n

When timely death my life and fortune ends,<\/p>\r\n

Let not my hearse be vexed with mourning friends,<\/p>\r\n

But let all lovers, rich in triumph, come<\/p>\r\n

And with sweet pastimes grace my happy tomb;<\/p>\r\n

And Lesbia, close up thou my little light,<\/p>\r\n

And crown with love my ever-during night.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Thomas Carew\u2018s Song: Persuasions to Enjoy inspires Celia to enjoy the life since the time destroys all goodly fruits. Carpe diem poems are also called \u2015Persuasions\u2016.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

If the quick spirits in your eye<\/p>\r\n

Now languish, and anon must die;<\/p>\r\n

If every sweet, and every grace<\/p>\r\n

Must fly from that forsaken face;<\/p>\r\n

Then, Celia, let us reap our joys,<\/p>\r\n

Ere Time such goodly fruit destroys.<\/p>\r\n

Or if that golden fleece must grow<\/p>\r\n

Forever, free from aged snow;<\/p>\r\n

If those bright suns must know no shade,<\/p>\r\n

Nor your fresh beauties ever fade;<\/p>\r\n

Then fear not, Celia, to bestow<\/p>\r\n

What, still being gathered, still must grow.<\/p>\r\n

Thus, either Time his sickle brings<\/p>\r\n

In vain, or else in vain his wings.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Samuel Daniel, the composer of Astrophel and Stella also wrote sonnets on the theme of Carpe diem. As per Satya Prasad Sengupta: \u2017The theme is Carpe diem, the destructiveness of the all \u2013devouring Time.\u2018 He also wrote that the time will take away the beauty of the beloved:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\r\n

When men shall find thy flower, thy glory pass,<\/p>\r\n

And thou with careful brow sitting alone:<\/p>\r\n

Received hast this message from thy glass,<\/p>\r\n

That tells thee truth, and says that all is gone.<\/p>\r\n

He also writes:<\/p>\r\n

Her beauty now the burden of my song<\/p>\r\n

Whose glorious blaze the world\u2018s eye doth admire,<\/p>\r\n

Must yield her praise to tyrant time\u2018s desire,<\/p>\r\n

Then fades the flower, which fed her pride so long;<\/p>\r\n

When, if she grieve to gaze in her glass<\/p>\r\n

Which then presents her winter wither\u2018d hue.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

Samuel Daniel composed \u2017Another Song\u2018 (from Thethys Festival). In this song again he writes on the theme of Carpe diem:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Are they shadows that we see?<\/p>\r\n

And can shadows pleasure give?<\/p>\r\n

Pleasures only shadows be<\/p>\r\n

Cast by bodies we conceive<\/p>\r\n

And are made the things we deem<\/p>\r\n

In those figures which they seem.<\/p>\r\n

But these pleasures vanish fast<\/p>\r\n

Which by shadows are expressed;<\/p>\r\n

Pleasures are not, if they last;<\/p>\r\n

In their passing is their best.<\/p>\r\n

Glory is most bright and gay<\/p>\r\n

In a flash, and so away.<\/p>\r\n

Feed apace then, greedy eyes,<\/p>\r\n

On the wonder you behold;<\/p>\r\n

Take it sudden as it flies,<\/p>\r\n

Though you take it not to hold.<\/p>\r\n

When your eyes have done their part,<\/p>\r\n

Though must length it in the heart.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

Delia is a remarkable collection by Danial. Here in Sonnet LV he wants to sing for the fair eyes of his beloved, and thus he would immortalise her:<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

These are the Arks, the Trophies I erect<\/p>\r\n

That fortify thy name against old age,<\/p>\r\n

And these thy sacred virtues must protect<\/p>\r\n

Against the dark and Time\u2018s consuming rage.<\/p>\r\n

Though th\u2018 error of my youth they shall discover,<\/p>\r\n

Suffice they show I liv\u2018d and was thy lover.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

In Sonnet L he compares his \u2017sweet love\u2018 with \u2017morning dew\u2018 but the time\u2018s destructive attitude clears away anything. He finds the glory of the blushing Rose short. In this beautiful poem he writes:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\r\n

Beauty, sweet love, is like the morning dew<\/p>\r\n

Whose short refresh upon the tender green<\/p>\r\n

Cheers for a time but till the sun doth show,<\/p>\r\n

And straight \u2018tis gone as it had never been.<\/p>\r\n

Soon doth it fade that makes the fairest flourish;<\/p>\r\n

Short is the glory of the blushing Rose,<\/p>\r\n

The hue which thou so carefully dost nourish<\/p>\r\n

Yet which at length thou must be forc\u2018d to lose.<\/p>\r\n

When thou surcharg\u2018d with burden of thy years<\/p>\r\n

Shalt bend thy wrinkles homeward to the earth,<\/p>\r\n

When Time hath made a passport for thy fears,<\/p>\r\n

Dated in age the Kalends of our death \u2013<\/p>\r\n

But, ah, no more: this hath often told,<\/p>\r\n

And women grieve to think they must be old.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Michel Drayton wrote a sonnet sequence entitled Idea containing sixty three sonnets. Michael Drayton in his Sonnet VIII expresses his fear for the destructive power of time that will diminish the beauty of the beloved.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\r\n

He does not want to see his beloved\u2018s beauty decaying. He writes;<\/p>\r\n

There's nothing grieves me, but that Age should haste,<\/p>\r\n

That in my days I may not see thee old,<\/p>\r\n

That where those two clear sparkling eyes are plac'd<\/p>\r\n

Only two loop-holes then I might behold;<\/p>\r\n

That lovely, arched, ivory, polish'd brow<\/p>\r\n

Defac'd with wrinkles that I might but see;<\/p>\r\n

Thy dainty hair, so curl'd and crisped now,<\/p>\r\n

Like grizzled moss upon some aged tree;<\/p>\r\n

Thy cheek, now flush with roses, sunk and lean;<\/p>\r\n

Thy lips with age as any wafer thin;<\/p>\r\n

Thy pearly teeth out of thy head so clean<\/p>\r\n

That, when thou feed'st, thy nose shall touch thy chin.<\/p>\r\n

These lines that now thou scorn'st, which should delight thee,<\/p>\r\n

Then would I make thee read but to despite thee.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

It is the legendry bird phoenix that can defeat the time. He compares his beloved to the phoenix and this way he can see her live beyond the time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

'Mongst all the creatures in this spacious round<\/p>\r\n

Of the birds' kind, the Phoenix is alone,<\/p>\r\n

Which best by you of living things is known;<\/p>\r\n

None like to that, none like to you is found.<\/p>\r\n

Your beauty is the hot and splend'rous sun,<\/p>\r\n

The precious spices be your chaste desire,<\/p>\r\n

Which being kindled by that heav'nly fire,<\/p>\r\n

Your life so like the Phoenix's begun;<\/p>\r\n

Yourself thus burned in that sacred flame,<\/p>\r\n

With so rare sweetness all the heavens perfuming,<\/p>\r\n

Again increasing as you are consuming,<\/p>\r\n

Only by dying born the very same;<\/p>\r\n

And, wing'd by fame, you to the stars ascend,<\/p>\r\n

So you of time shall live beyond the end.In Sonnet XVII<\/p>\r\n

he addresses the \u2017speedy time\u2018.<\/p>\r\n

Here he suggests the time to look himself into in a glass.<\/p>\r\n

Stay, speedy Time, behold, before thou pass,<\/p>\r\n

From age to age what thou hast sought to see,<\/p>\r\n

One in whom all the excellencies be,<\/p>\r\n

In whom Heav'n looks itself as in a glass.<\/p>\r\n

Time, look thyself in this tralucent glass,<\/p>\r\n

And thy youth past in this pure mirror see,<\/p>\r\n

As the world's beauty in his infancy,<\/p>\r\n

What is was then, and thou before it was.<\/p>\r\n

Pass on, and to posterity tell this,<\/p>\r\n

Yet see thou tell but truly what hath been;<\/p>\r\n

Say to our nephews that thou once hast seen<\/p>\r\n

In perfect human shape all heav'nly bliss,<\/p>\r\n

And bid them mourn, nay more, despair with thee,<\/p>\r\n

That she is gone, her like again to see.<\/p>\r\n

Love also loses its virtues by the passage of time.<\/p>\r\n

Same theme has been taken up by him in Sonnet XXVII<\/p>\r\n

Is not Love here as 'tis in other climes,<\/p>\r\n

And differeth it, as do the several nations?<\/p>\r\n

Or hath it lost the virtue with the times,<\/p>\r\n

Or in this island altereth with the fashions?<\/p>\r\n

Or have our passions lesser power than theirs,<\/p>\r\n

Who had less art them lively to express?<\/p>\r\n

Is Nature grown less powerful in their heirs,<\/p>\r\n

Or in our fathers did she more transgress?<\/p>\r\n

I am sure my sighs come from a heart as true<\/p>\r\n

As any man's that memory can boast,<\/p>\r\n

And my respects and services to you<\/p>\r\n

Equal with his that loves his mistress most.<\/p>\r\n

Or nature must be partial to my cause,<\/p>\r\n

Or only you do violate her laws<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n

Just like Shakespeare he wishes to eternize his beloved by the power of his pen. He calls the time \u2017tyrannizing\u2018 and compares it to Medea. To spare his beloved from the curse of oblivion and grave he is ready to cherish her forever in his rhymes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Whilst thus my pen strives to eternize thee,<\/p>\r\n

Age rules my lines with wrinkles in my face,<\/p>\r\n

Where in the map of all my misery<\/p>\r\n

Is modell'd out the world of my disgrace.<\/p>\r\n

Whilst, in despite of tyrannizing times,<\/p>\r\n

Medea-like, I make thee young again,<\/p>\r\n

Proudly thou scorn'st my world-outwearing rhymes<\/p>\r\n

And murtherest virtue with thy coy disdain.<\/p>\r\n

And though in youth my youth untimely perish,<\/p>\r\n

To keep thee from oblivion and the grave<\/p>\r\n

Ensuing ages yet my rhymes shall cherish,<\/p>\r\n

When I entomb'd, my better part shall save;<\/p>\r\n

And though this earthly body fade and die,<\/p>\r\n

My name shall mount upon eternity. ( Sonnet XLIV)<\/p>\r\n

Again in Sonnet LX he is ready to use his pen in order to<\/p>\r\n

defeat the time and immortalize his love.<\/p>\r\n

Define my weal, and tell the joys of Heav'n;<\/p>\r\n

Express my woes, and show the pains of Hell;<\/p>\r\n

Declare what fate unlucky stars have giv'n,<\/p>\r\n

And ask a world upon my life to dwell;<\/p>\r\n

Make known the faith that Fortune could not move;<\/p>\r\n

Compare my worth with others' base desert;<\/p>\r\n

Let virtue be the touchstone of my love,<\/p>\r\n

So may the heav'ns read wonders in my heart;<\/p>\r\n

Behold the clouds which have eclips'd my sun,<\/p>\r\n

And view the crosses which my course do let;<\/p>\r\n

Tell me if ever since the world begun<\/p>\r\n

So fair a rising had so foul a set,<\/p>\r\n

And see if Time (if he would strive to prove)<\/p>\r\n

Can show a second to so pure a love.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

William Shakespeare also wrote on the theme of Carpe diem in his sonnets and plays. He projected time as all devouring in his sonnets. Caroline Spurgeon writes that: \u2015Everything seems to come under the dominion of time --- youth, beauty, strength, even life itself ---\u2018 save only love which is \u2017not time\u2018s fool.\u2018 Wounded Hotspur in Henry IV cries that \u2017But thought\u2018s the slave of life, and life\u2018s time\u2018s fool.\u2018 (5.4.81). But in Troilus and Cressida, he writes:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

flies the grasps of love<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0With wings more momentary - swift thant thought.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(4.2.11.14)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\r\nHe portrays it as a killer who strangles lover\u2018s vows. Caroline Spurgeon writes about such speeches in Troilus and Cressida: \u2017\u2026we feel that what he cannot forgive time is that it seems to hurt, change, diminish and even to destroy love.\u2018(pg.779). He further writes that: \u2017Love is apparently killed by time, only because it transcends time; and its spiritual infinite essence cannot be confined within the limitations of a material finite world.\u2018 (pg.180) In Act III scene III of Troilus and Cressida Ulysses says;<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Beauty wit.<\/p>\r\n

High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,<\/p>\r\n

Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all<\/p>\r\n

To envious and culminating time.<\/p>\r\n

Shakespeare presented all men as time\u2018s subjects. In Act I, scene III, Henry IV he writes:<\/p>\r\n

Eating the air in promises of supply,<\/p>\r\n

Flattering himself in project of a power<\/p>\r\n

Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts<\/p>\r\n

And so, with great imagination<\/p>\r\n

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,<\/p>\r\n

And winking leap\u2018d into destruction.<\/p>\r\n

In the same play at one place he defines the destructive power of time in these words:<\/p>\r\n

We see which the stream of time doth run,<\/p>\r\n

And our enforced from our most quite shore<\/p>\r\n

By the rough torrent of occasion.<\/p>\r\n

The time misordered doth, in common sense,<\/p>\r\n

Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form,<\/p>\r\n

To hold our safety up.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\u2015William Shakespeare\u2018s high comedy, \u2015Twelfth Night, or, What You Will,\u2016 (1600), centers on themes of love\u2013 unrequited love, lost love, secret love, fickle love. But another theme is also explored \u2013 carpe diem<\/em><\/strong>, or\u2015seize the day.\u2016 The idea that we should embrace life and live it to the fullest and in the present<\/em> was a very<\/p>\r\n

modern philosophy for Shakespeare (<\/strong>1564-1616) to tuck into a 17th Century play.\u2016 (http:\/\/www.search.ask.com\/web?q=carpediem+in+elizabethan+age&apn_dtid=%5EIME001%5EYY%5EIN &d=1...)<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?<\/p>\r\n

O, stay and hear! your true-love\u2018s coming,<\/p>\r\n

That can sing both high and low.<\/p>\r\n

Trip no further, pretty sweeting,<\/p>\r\n

Journeys end in lovers meeting\u2014<\/p>\r\n

Every wise man\u2018s son doth know.<\/p>\r\n

What is love? \u2018Tis not hereafter;<\/p>\r\n

Present mirth hath present laughter;<\/p>\r\n

What\u2018s to come is still unsure:<\/p>\r\n

In delay there lies no plenty;<\/p>\r\n

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,<\/p>\r\n

Youth\u2018s a stuff will not endure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Sonnet 12 portrays the power of time, which is without mercy. Time causes gradual decay of all objects. Time is all powerful. The poem presents the images of summer and of snow in winter. The poem contains a message that time stops for none. In order to gain immortality one has to produce children. The poem ends with the following couplet:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

And nothing \u2018gainst Time\u2018s scythe can make defense<\/p>\r\n

Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.<\/p>\r\n

Sonnet 15 also reveals the decaying nature of time<\/p>\r\n

that makes human existence and beauty transitory.<\/p>\r\n

Because all physical things decay over time. But sonnets<\/p>\r\n

can immortalize the beauty of Fair Youth.<\/p>\r\n

Then the conceit of this inconsistent stay<\/p>\r\n

Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,<\/p>\r\n

Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay,<\/p>\r\n

To change your day of youth to sullied night.<\/p>\r\n

And all in war with Time for love of you,<\/p>\r\n

As he takes from you, I engraft you new.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

L.C. Knights in his book Some Shakespearean Themes<\/em> rightly writes that Time is \u2017one of the most consistently developed themes of Shakespeare\u2018s sonnets\u2018 in which \u2017the linguistic vitality is highest\u2018. About sonnet, 12 and 15 he writes that: \u2015One reason of course why Time comes into the picture at all is that many of the sonnets are about ways of defeating him \u2013 getting married and having children, or writing immortal verse, or, best of all, loving so truly that Time can make no difference. But the poet is not interested in the young patron\u2018s posterity with the same intensity of concern that is evoked by the signs of beauties passing and even the magnificent assertion of love\u2018s independence of Time in Sonnet CXVI.\u2016<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In sonnet 19 the poet addresses the Time as \u2017devouring\u2018 the nature. He requests the Time not to demolish the beauty of Fair Youth. But he wants to immortalize him in his verses.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Yet doe thy worst old Time despite thy wrong,<\/p>\r\n

My love shall in my verse ever live young.<\/p>\r\n

In sonnet 19, he also writes:<\/p>\r\n

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion\u2018s paws,<\/p>\r\n

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood.<\/p>\r\n

Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger\u2018s jaws,<\/p>\r\n

And burn the long \u2013 lived phoenix in her blood.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

There are some critics who believe that Shakespeare was concerned with Carpe Diem, the briefness of beauty and the devouring power of time. But in sonnet 116 he establishes the power of love that transcends the limitations of Time. Where he writes:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Love\u2018s not Time\u2018s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks<\/p>\r\n

Within his bending sickle\u2018s compass come.<\/p>\r\n

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,<\/p>\r\n

But bears it out even to the edge of doom:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

F.E. Halliday in his book The Poetry of Shakespeare\u2018s Plays writes: \u2015Swift- footed time is devourer of the wide world\u2018s fading sweets and Shakespeare feels a great pity for men and women by \u2017Time\u2018s injurious hand crushed and o\u2018erworn\u2018. Time and its cruel destructive power its slow sapping of beauty, is the melancholy inspiration of much of Shakespeare\u2018s poetry\u2016.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In again Sonnet 49 he writes against time. Each quatrain starts with a phrase \u2017Against that time.\u2018 The first quatrain opens with following lines:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Against that time, if ever that time come,<\/p>\r\n

When I shall see thee frown on my defects,<\/p>\r\n

When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,\u2026<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In the second quatrain he writes: \u2017Against that time when\u2018 the fair youth \u2017shalt strangely pass \/ And scarcely greet\u2018 him \u2017with the sun\u2018 in his eyes.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Sonnet 60 again deals with the power of time. Here the poet uses words like \u2017waves\u2018 and \u2017minuts\u2018 in order to symbolize time. \u2017The pebbled shore\u2018 symbolizes the death.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore,<\/p>\r\n

So do our minutes hasten to their end\u2026<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The time imparts life to us and also snatches it away. \u2017And Time that gave doth now his gift confound\u2018. Time\u2018s destructive nature as taken up by Shakespeare in his sonnets has been commented by many critics. Shakespeare portrays time as \u2017Injurious shifting, wasteful, a devourer, a spoiler and a thief, he\u00a0swallows up cities and defaces proud buildings, is an eater of youth, \u2017feeds on the rarities of nature\u2018s truth\u2018 and devours good deeds past as fast as they are made, he steals minutes and hours, wrecks and despoils beauty, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

This at least is one mood \u2013 and the most constant - in which Shakespeare sees time, and, like many of his pictures of death, it is an entirely mediaeval conception he has before him of the \u2017cormorant\u2018 devourer, the \u2017bloody tyrant\u2018, the all powerful reaper with his scythe\u2018. (Caroline Spurgeon \u2013 pg \u2013 176)<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In sonnet 63 he address time as \u2017injurious\u2018, who crushes individuals and steals away the treasure of spring. He writes: \u2017For such a time do I now fortify\/ Against confounding age\u2018s cruel knife,\/ That he shall never cut from memory \/ My sweet love\u2018s beauty though my lover\u2018s life; \u2026\u2016 The very next sonnet also reflects the poets\u2018 struggle against Time that is the arch \u2013 devourer. The poet seems to suffer from the fear that the death will \u2017take my (his) love away\u2018. But unlike sonnet 60, this sonnet ends with a depressing mood and tone:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

This thought is as death, which cannot choose<\/p>\r\n

But weep to have that which it fears to lose.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

All strong things like brass, stone, boundless sea and love are perishable. But in black ink he can provide immortality to the beauty of his friend.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Oh, none, unless this miracle have might,<\/p>\r\n

That in black ink my love may still shine bright.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Mirror reflects the image of old age. The poet gifts a notebook to his friend in which he can record his experiences. The hands of a clock indicate the time\u2018s thievish progress to eternity\u2018.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show<\/p>\r\n

Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;<\/p>\r\n

(Sonnet 77)<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In sonnet 100 he invokes the muse to satirize time\u2018s destructive and aging powers, and to prevent time\u2018s knife from cutting the beauty of his fair friend.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Rise, resty Muse; my love\u2018s sweet face survey,<\/p>\r\n

If time have any wrinkle graven there;<\/p>\r\n

If any, be a satire to decay,<\/p>\r\n

And make time\u2018s spoils despised everywhere.<\/p>\r\n

Give my love fame faster than time wastes life.<\/p>\r\n

So thou prevent\u2018st his scythe and crooked knife. (100)<\/p>\r\n

The effect of time can be seen on the face of the Fair Youth.<\/p>\r\n

The sweet beauty of the friend is also changing.<\/p>\r\n

\u2017Ah yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,<\/p>\r\n

Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;<\/p>\r\n

So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,<\/p>\r\n

Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived. (104)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

He writes that \u2017to me fair friend, you never can be old\u2018. Under the blessings of time he finds his beloved fresh and beautiful. \u2017Now with the drops of this most balmy time \/ My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribe\u2026\u2016 (107)<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The \u2017reckoning time\u2018s\u2018 millions of accidents creep in between the lover\u2018s promises, and they can change even the \u2017decrees of kings\u2018, they can \u2017tan the sacred beauty\u2018, and \u2017blunt the sharpest intents\u2018. He is not afraid of \u2017time\u2018s tyranny\u2018.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Alas, why, fearing of time\u2018s tyranny,<\/p>\r\n

Might I not then say, \u2015Now I love you best\u2016,<\/p>\r\n

When I was certain o\u2018er incertainty,<\/p>\r\n

Crowning the present, doubting of the rest? (115)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

True love never shakes and changes because of impediments and storms. Love cannot be destroyed by the time\u2018s sharp sickle. Physical beauty can wither under time\u2018s destructive power but the true love lasts till the doomsday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Love\u2018s not time\u2018s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks<\/p>\r\n

Within his bending sickle\u2018s compass come:<\/p>\r\n

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,<\/p>\r\n

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.<\/p>\r\n

If this be error and upon me proved,<\/p>\r\n

I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (116)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

L.C.Knights rightly writes that sonnet 116 \u2017is set over against what the imagination has made most real\u2018 there are whole tracts of experience still to be crossed. What we feel again and again, in those sonnets that are most powerfully alive, is the sense of Time \u2013 The dial\u2018s shady stealth\u2018 \u2013 summed up in unforgettable image of the changing seasons and the wasting years\u2018. (pg \u2013 49 \u2013 50) Sonnet 123 again challenges the might of destructive Time. He will remain faithful to his friend despite the destructive power of Time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

This I do vow and this shall ever be:<\/p>\r\n

I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee. (123)<\/p>\r\n

In the next sonnet he continues the previous theme.<\/p>\r\n

He defines his true and firm love in following lines:<\/p>\r\n

If my dear love were but the child of state,<\/p>\r\n

It might for Fortune\u2018s bastard be unfathered,<\/p>\r\n

As subject to time\u2018s love or to time\u2018s hate,<\/p>\r\n

Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered. (124)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

In sonnet 126, the poet refers to the power of time. In spite of the blessings of Nature he should fear Time\u2018s destructive power.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

She keeps thee to this purpose: that her skill<\/p>\r\n

May time disagree, and wretched minute kill.<\/p>\r\n

\u2026<\/p>\r\n

Her audit, though delayed, unanswered must be,<\/p>\r\n

And her quietus is to render thee. (126).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

Ben Johnson\u2018s come, My Celia is another example of Carpe diem. He calls his beloved to value love since the time will not be theirs forever.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

COME, my Celia, let us prove<\/p>\r\n

While we may, the sports of love;<\/p>\r\n

Time will not be ours forever;<\/p>\r\n

He at length our good will sever.<\/p>\r\n

Spend not then his gifts in vain.<\/p>\r\n

Suns that set may rise again;<\/p>\r\n

But if once we lose this light,<\/p>\r\n

'Tis with us perpetual night.<\/p>\r\n

Why should we defer our joys?<\/p>\r\n

Fame and rumour are but toys.<\/p>\r\n

Cannot we delude the eyes<\/p>\r\n

Of a few poor household spies,<\/p>\r\n

Or his easier ears beguile,<\/p>\r\n

So removed by our wile?<\/p>\r\n

'Tis no sin love's fruit to steal;<\/p>\r\n

But the sweet theft to reveal.<\/p>\r\n

To be taken, to be seen,<\/p>\r\n

These have crimes accounted been.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Robert Herrick\u2018s collection of poems entitled Hesperides is noted for the famous carpe diem To the Virgins, and To Make Much of Time. His poems contain the message that the life is very short, and one must make the best use of this precious time. In the above mentioned carpe diem he writes:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,<\/p>\r\n

Old time is still a-flying;<\/p>\r\n

And this same flower that smiles today<\/p>\r\n

Tomorrow will be dying.<\/p>\r\n

The glorious lamp of heaven the sun,<\/p>\r\n

The higher he's a-getting,<\/p>\r\n

The sooner will his race be run,<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

And nearer he's to setting.<\/p>\r\n

That age is best which is the first,<\/p>\r\n

When youth and blood are warmer;<\/p>\r\n

But being spent, the worse, and worst<\/p>\r\n

Times still succeed the former.<\/p>\r\n

Then be not coy, but use your time,<\/p>\r\n

And, while ye may, go marry;<\/p>\r\n

For, having lost but once your prime,<\/p>\r\n

You may forever tarry.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

His other famous carpe diems are To Daffodils, To Silvia to Wed, A Lyric to Mirth, On Himself III, To Live Merrily and to Trust Good Verses, To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time, Best to Be Merry, The Changes to Corinna, Upon a Delaying Lady, To Live Freely, To Enjoy the Time, To a Bed of Tulips, To Electra (III), An End Decreed, To Youth, To Be Merry, To Blossoms and Corinna Going a- Maying. Corinna going a- Maying is a long poem by Harrick. In the final stanza of this poem he calls his beloved to come and enjoy the life before the death comes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Come, let us go, while we are in our prime,<\/p>\r\n

And take the harmless folly of the time!<\/p>\r\n

We shall grow old apace, and die<\/p>\r\n

Before we know our liberty.<\/p>\r\n

Our life is short, and our days run<\/p>\r\n

As fast away as does the sun.<\/p>\r\n

And, as a vapor or a drop of rain,<\/p>\r\n

Once lost, can ne'er be found again,<\/p>\r\n

So when you or I are made<\/p>\r\n

A fable, song, or fleeting shade,<\/p>\r\n

All love, all liking, all delight<\/p>\r\n

Lies drowned with us in endless night.<\/p>\r\n

Then, while time serves, and we are but decaying,<\/p>\r\n

Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a-Maying.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

In To Daffodills he appreciates the beautiful flowers of daffodils but expresses his grief that these beautiful flowers fade quickly. He tries to cast a parallel between these flowers and life .<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see<\/p>\r\n

You haste away so soon;<\/p>\r\n

As yet the early \u2013 rising sun<\/p>\r\n

Stay, stay<\/p>\r\n

Until the hasting day<\/p>\r\n

Has run<\/p>\r\n

But to the even song;<\/p>\r\n

And, having pray\u2018d together, we<\/p>\r\n

Will go with you along.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Youth is symbolised by early \u2013 rising seen and middle age by noon. Briefness of human life has been portrayed in the second stanza of this poem:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

We have short time to stay, as you,<\/p>\r\n

We have as short a spring;<\/p>\r\n

As quick a growth to meet decay,<\/p>\r\n

As you, or anything.<\/p>\r\n

We die<\/p>\r\n

As your hours do, and dry<\/p>\r\n

Away,<\/p>\r\n

Like to the summer\u2018s rain;<\/p>\r\n

Or as the pearls of morning\u2018s dew<\/p>\r\n

Ne\u2018er be found again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Human beings also have a short life span just like these daffodils flowers. Human life has been compared with \u2017summer\u2018s rain\u2018 and \u2017pearls of morning dew\u2018 that disappear in a blink of an eye. So we must enjoy life.<\/p>\r\n

To Blossoms is also a lovely carpe diem. In the opening stanza of this poem he lays emphasis on the shortness of the life of flowers that symbolize the human life.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

FAIR pledges of a fruitful tree,<\/p>\r\n

Why do ye fall so fast?<\/p>\r\n

Your date is not so past<\/p>\r\n

But you may stay yet here a while,<\/p>\r\n

To blush and gently smile;<\/p>\r\n

And go at last.<\/p>\r\n

The poet\u2018s grief over such a short life span reflects in the second stanza:<\/p>\r\n

What! were ye born to be<\/p>\r\n

An hour or half\u2018s delight,<\/p>\r\n

And so to bid good-night?<\/p>\r\n

\u2017Twas pity Nature brought ye forth<\/p>\r\n

Merely to show your worth,<\/p>\r\n

And lose you quite.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Grave is the ultimate destination of all living and beautiful things in this world. No one can wrestle with time and death. So spread the fragrance as speedily as possible: But you are lovely leaves, where we<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

May read how soon things have<\/p>\r\n

Their end, though ne\u2018er so brave:<\/p>\r\n

And after have shown their pride<\/p>\r\n

Like you a while, they glide<\/p>\r\n

Into the grave.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Andrew Marvell in his poem To His Coy Mistress persuades his mistress for the physical union. In first twenty lines he says that he has less time so he can not spend thousands and hundreds of years just in wooing her. In next twelve lines he describes the heart rending cruelty of time. But at my back I always hear<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Time\u2018s winged chariot hurrying near;<\/p>\r\n

And yonder all before us lie<\/p>\r\n

Deserts of vast eternity.<\/p>\r\n

Thy beauty shall no more be found,<\/p>\r\n

Nor in thy marble vault shall sound<\/p>\r\n

My echoing song; then worms shall try<\/p>\r\n

That long preserved virginity,<\/p>\r\n

And your quaint honour turn to dust,<\/p>\r\n

And into ashes all my lust.<\/p>\r\n

The grave\u2018s a fine and private place,<\/p>\r\n

But none, I think, do thee embrace.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

In the final stanza of this poem he argues that in \u2017loving one another with passion they will both make the most of the brief time they have to live .\u2018(http:\/\/en.wikepedia.org\/wiki\/ To \u2013His-Coy \u2013Mistress\u2026) He also says that no one can pause the time.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The Earl of Surrey finds beauty short-lived, Carew persuades his beloved to enjoy life,\u00a0Daniel finds pleasure vanishing speedily, Drayton sees the effect of time on love and its virtues, and poets like William Shakespeare and Samuel Daniel try to immortalize the beauty of their respective loves by singing in verse. Marvell like Harrick tries to persuade his beloved to love and enjoy the moment. Time\u2018s destructive power becomes the basic theme of carpe diem.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

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you can view video on Carpe Diem<\/strong><\/td>\r\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nReference\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n