To_The_Virgins,_To_Make_Much_Of_Time

To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick is a poem that can be interpreted in many different ways. The theme is “Carpe Diem” or “seize the day”, which means to make the most of life, when you are young and able to do so. “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” has various meanings; it is assumed that “the Virgins” are the young and inexperienced people in life, not just the ones that have not yet experienced the ways of sexual intimacy. “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”, which is the first line of the stanza, illustrates a person taking advantage of life when he or she is still young. The “rosebud” represents youth and life, because a rosebud is the early stage of a flower. Herrick tries to make the point, that if it is not gotten today, it might not be there tomorrow. The first and second stanzas illustrate how young “virgins” should not wait to take advantage of life, because one day they will realize that it is too late. The third and fourth stanzas are the consequences of a person’s failure to “seize life, day, seize, person, young, while, time, virgins, stanza, poem, one, first, make, herrick, youth, ye, third, stanzas, line, because, advantage, worst, worse, words, ways, two, times, theme, tarry, take, succeed, spent, something, show, should