To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time: Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick seems to be a poet who talks about seizing the day and sexuality. "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" speaks of just that- seizing the day. Herrick is urging the young virgins to celebrate life's pleasures and gifts of life before they are too old and regret not doing so: "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may/ Old time is still a flying/ And this same flower that smiles today/ Tomorrow will be dying (lines 1-4). Herrick is not encoraging these virgins to have sex but simply to get married and then share the bond and happiness together,now, that they are young: "That age is best which is the first/ When youth and blood are warmer/ But being spent, the worse and worst/ Times still succeed the former (lines 9-12). Again Herrick is encouraging these young adults to not waste their lives while they are young and still have time to experience life's finest things. Maybe he is also trying to inspire his readers to seize the day and then perhaps when you are old you can look back on your life and have no regrets because you simply experienced life to the fullest!?