Introduction

Time is the essence of life. It is quintessential for prosperity or poverty. Each second that ticks by controls life and death. Time is used to express a limited entity and something that needs to be fully used and not wasted. Both To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick underscore the importance of time and that everyone needs to seize time. In To His Coy Mistress Marvell suggests that time is constantly slashing away at life and that everybody needs to take a hold of time and use the best of it. Because once we die we can never relive our life. Marvell employs carpe diem because everyone needs to seize the day. Furthermore, In To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time Herrick demonstrates that time is limited and women need marry and not spend time being shy and not asserting themselves. Carpe diem is also used because the women need to seize the day and marry in order to fully use time. Both poems are very similar and through the use of different examples ultimately encapsulates the central idea of seizing the day.