"To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time" by Robert Herrick

"Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a flying:
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a getting;
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

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.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry."

This poem has some cool wording and speech in it. Once again, gotta love your a, b, a, b etc. rhyme scheme. Makes it more musical and flows nicely. There are some pretty easy metaphors and stuff in this poem. The flower being happy and alive today is dying tomorrow? Obviously that suggests that things are changing drastically in the short time of a single day. And this relates to the title: make much of time. Gathering the rosebuds may refer to getting as much as you can out of life. Do as much in life as you can while you're still here, gather rosebuds. He talks about being in your prime, which is something ALL of you know well about I'm sure. Everybody's worried about getting old, weak, and ugly. So enjoy being in your prime. In this poem the writer's saying get married now, in your prime, because if you wait too long you may not be able to find a partner. The older, uglier you get the less chance you got. I don't really like it. Because getting married early has always seemed like a real bad idea to me, especially nowadays but I know this was written a long time ago. Premarital sex wasn't common at all in those days so you can see why getting married early wasn't a bad idea back then. How slutty...