Comparison between To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time and To Hélène

张玥

Taken from the Roman poet Horaces work Odes， carpe diem means “seize the day”， in which carpe can be translated to enjoy， seize， use and diem refers to day. A more literature interpretation is “enjoy the moment”. Since the bringing up of this idea， many poets use it in their work and so do Robert Herrick and Pierre de Ronsard.

Under the same topic， To the Virgins， to Make Much of Time by Herrick and To Hélène by Ronsard unsurprisingly have a lot in common.

First comes the general message they convey. Both of them urge readers to cherish time and make full use of it. In To the Virgins， the opening lines compares time to flower and sun， which vividly shows how time flies. Moreover， “being spent”， time is getting “worse” and is going to be “worst” finally. So the poet calls up the readers to “use your time”. In To Hélène， the poet points out “today wont come again” and gives the advice to “live it well”.

The second similarity comes to the technique. They make contrast between the past and the later. In To the Virgins， like the flower， which “smiles today” but “will be dying” tomorrow and the sun， which is “a-getting” now but sooner “hes to setting”， “time still succeed the former”， which means that time is less good as it passes. In To Hélène， the contrast is realized by the change of a womans beauty. When she was “young and bright”， her beauty was praised. But at present， she is “very old”， “crouched and gray”. The contrast impresses the readers， which induces them to pay attention to the loss of time.

Next， it is found that the image “rose” used in two poems： “rosebuds” in To the Virgins and “roses” in To Hélène. In two poems， the rose refers to time. How are rose and time connected together？ Yeats answers this question in To the Rose upon the Rood of Time. Bao claims that the rood is the cross， the place where Jesus suffered and died. After his mortal life ended comes the Resurrection of Jesus in the Heaven. So the cross can be seen as the end and start of time. In this way， the rose which blossoms in the cross stands for time. Moreover， rose is the most common flower. People usually overlook it without concern but when it comes to some important moments， such as in Saint Valentine s Day， people notice its existence and cherish it， which corresponds to how people treat time. When time seems enough， people take no notice of it. Only when they perceive that time is flying at an alarming speed will people think highly of it.

Unlike the rose which is touchable and can be collected into a vase， time is invisible but appreciable. Time is objectified into rose， through which the readers experience the passing of time by the blossoming and fading.

Based on the above， the next similarity can be seen that both of two poems use other objects to make time concrete. In To the Virgins， the poet uses rosebuds to refer to the youth. When the flower of youth still blossoms， it should be taken as soon as possible otherwise it gets faded and gone， which you will repent of so much. Later， Herrick makes another metaphor that youth is like the sun which is getting up. The higher the sun of youth is， the closer it gets to end. Take Heideggers Being and Time for explaining this wonderful idea. In this book， Heidegger puts forward to “das Sein zum Tode”， which means being-towards-death. Simply speaking， after we are born and before we are dead， we move to death every year， every day and every second. Similar to this idea， Herrick alarms readers that although youth is at the top of life， we are on the decline. After these two comparison， he draws the conclusion—the wonderful youth time should be treated with concern because it slides away before noticed. Ronsard， in To Hélène， describes a miserable scene of a woman： she recollects her youth when her beauty was once praised but now she just feels old. The time is materialized through the beauty of the woman.

Although Herrick and Ronsard write for the same theme， two poems differ a lot， such as content， emphasis and order.

First， the contents of two poems are different. To the Virgins is more like an exhortation. The poet urges “One should live for the moment by urging oneself to get married and have an intercourse because youthfulness lasts briefly” （Kurniawan， 34）. Instead， Ronsard makes To Hélène more like a love poem. At that time， Hélène was experiencing the loss of her husband. Ronsard was asked to give her comfort. It was during this time that Ronsard fell in love with this woman and created the famous set of poems Sonnets pour Hélène. Ronsard persuades her to be careful of the loss of time and to live for today. In a baiting way， the poet aims more at talking her into accepting his love when she is still attractive.

Through the analyses above， the second difference shows itself in what the poets attach importance to. In To the Virgins， not all period of time but the youth is stressed to be seized. In To Hélène， one should exhaustively enjoy the moment right now， even though the youth will be never back.

So the objects are definitely different. As To the Virgins shows， the virgins is the object of persuasion. Woman is the best only when she is virgin with beautiful “prime”. Herrick convinces virgins not to waste time and to “go marry” otherwise they “may forever tarry”， which means that they will be delayed by their careless wasting and hesitation of time. However， as mentioned above， To Hélène is about love towards a woman so the foremost object is Hélène. Surprisingly， Ronsard does not write as romantic as common love poem. He is so confident that he points out that if Hélène does not choose him， she will “yearn for all thats lost” and repent her “disdain” in her later life.

The forth difference is the order in poem. In To the Virgins， the poet pictures that youth is as pretty as flower and as energetic as the sun. Then， he reminds the readers that time also passes as fast as flower withers away and the sun falls down. At last， Herrick notes that virgins should make good use of their youth and get married. Unlike the delight images in the opening of To the Virgins， To Hélène starts with an old woman， who was lonely， sitting beside a dim candlelight. Later， Ronsard turns the eyes to the womans beauty when she was young. Eventually， he poses his appeal that to Hélène， she should not waste more time but accept his love as soon as possible and to the readers， they should focus on today and live for it. In brief， the order of To the Virgins is “delight scene--upset future--advice” while that of To Hélène is “upset picture--pleasant memory--warning”.

Looking at the choice of words， we can discover that the atmosphere of two poems are not same. In To the Virgins， more positive words are used. They are “rosebuds”， “flower”， “smile”， “glorious”， “higher”， “best”， “first”， “youth”， “blood”， “warmer”， “succeed”， “marry” and “prime”. The poet uses positive words to deliver his idea and even negative meaning of dying， setting， and having lost. However， in To Hélène， more negative words are applied. They are “very old”， “evening candlelight”， “such a fool”， “have no handmaid”， “leads her into lull”， “poor ghost without his bones”， “sleeper”， “old and crouched and gray”， “all thats lost”， “repenting your disdain”， “wont come again” and “fall away”. There is only one sentence which describes the pretty beauty while others voice sorrowfulness.

Due to the different usages of words， the expected changes of mood in readers necessarily differ. To the Virgins pleases readers with a pretty picture of youth but soon upsets readers with the gone time， which makes readers merry to sorry. To Hélène depresses readers at the beginning though the old woman and gives the warn later， which makes readers frustrated and alarmed.

Through their verses， two poets show the ways in which they confront the fleeting nature of life， which are related to their life experience. For Herrick， he， at age twenty-two， was admitted to St Johns College， Cambridge. Later he migrated to Trinity Hall graduating in 1617. But， he was ordained in 1623 and in 1629 became the vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire， where he was cut off from the outside world. In 1647， in the English Civil War， he returned to London. When King Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660， Herrick became the vicar of Dean Prior again in the summer of 1662 and lived there until his death in October 1674， at the age of 83. For  Ronsard， he was born in an aristocratic family. He was attached as secretary to the suite of the prince and companied the Queen of Scotland to go abroad. However， in his later life， he got ill-health and half-deaf， which destroyed his road of official career. From their life experience， the conclusion can be drawn that it is hard to predict what will happen in the future. The fleeting nature of life is ruthless. They are promising at this moment but get unfortunate in the next second. So what two of them can do is to seize the time and to enjoy the present.

Based on the analyses above， the most important idea two poets express through their poems is that time is， time was， and time is past. For me， the inspiration is that it is better to make every moment happy and valuable than to feel anxious about the future.

References：

[1]Bao， Huiyi.包慧怡.葉芝与他的“十字架玫瑰”[OL]. https：//www.whb.cn/zhuzhan/xueren/20180504/196992.html，2018.5.4/2018. 5.21.

[2]Kurniawan， Mandy Wasistiyana. Analysis of the Carpe Diem Theme of Robert Herricks and Richard Lovelaces Poem[D]. Maranatha Christian University，2015.

【作者简介】Zhang Yue， female， born in 1998， Han， Xiangyang， Hubei， Beijing Normal University， majoring in English literature.