{"id":266,"date":"2017-03-28T19:15:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T23:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/?p=266"},"modified":"2017-03-28T19:15:08","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T23:15:08","slug":"make-much-of-time-boys-and-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/early-modern-pornography\/make-much-of-time-boys-and-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"“Make Much of Time,” boys and girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Shakespeare\u00a0Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” reminds me of Shakespeare’s hastening words, especially in Sonnet 1: ”<\/p>\n

Thou that art now the world\u2019s fresh ornament<\/div>\n
And only herald to the gaudy spring,<\/div>\n
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,<\/div>\n
And, tender churl, mak\u2019st waste in niggarding.<\/div>\n
\u2003\u2003 \u00a0 \u00a0Pity the world, or else this glutton be,<\/div>\n
\u2003\u2003 \u00a0 \u00a0To eat the world\u2019s due, by the grave and thee.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Shakespeare’s speaker\u00a0addresses a man, urges him to have children, and in a\u00a0chastising tone.\u00a0Herrick’s speaker is more equivocating in its address. “The Virgins” only appear in the title; in the body of the poem, the speaker employs the\u00a0second-person with “ye,” with rhyming platitudes that anyone might take to heart:<\/p>\n

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,<\/div>\n
Old Time is still a-flying;<\/div>\n
And this same flower that smiles today<\/div>\n
Tomorrow will be dying.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

In the second stanza, the speaker’s perspective is cosmic: “The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun\u2026” And the third stanza speaks broadly of “that age\u2026 when youth and blood are warmer.” Finally, the speaker seems to turn to “the virgins,” whom he cautions against chastity. But he does not–of course not!–suggest that they\u00a0seize the day\u00a0before they have married. The implication for a woman to share her youth and beauty requires a kind of flowery masking, as Herrick demonstrates on multiple levels in this poem. In urging this woman to share, the speaker’s worst must belie his own desire. But the man, “tender churl,” who does not\u00a0beget heirs and propagate the race receives a bold,\u00a0stern\u00a0reminder of his responsibility: if he\u00a0“mak’st waste in niggarding,” if he hoards his beauty and youth, then he will suffer, at least, in death (with no heirs).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Shakespeare\u00a0Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” reminds me of Shakespeare’s hastening words, especially in Sonnet 1: ” Thou that art now the world\u2019s fresh ornament And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content, And, tender churl, mak\u2019st waste in niggarding. \u2003\u2003 \u00a0 \u00a0Pity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":422,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early-modern-pornography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/english-2202-spring-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}