Carpe Poem

            Capre diem is Latin for "seize the day". In such a poem, the speaker expresses his sadness at the thought of swiftly passing time and the brevity of life. The poet sometimes addresses his thoughts to a girl who is reluctant to yield her virginity, but other carpe diem poems have religious purposes. The argument is always persuasive, relating to the passage of time and the fading of earthly joys. The theme of carpe dime was especially predominant in seventeenth century poetry when literature began shifting away from humanism, and therefore plunged into the lives and feelings of the everyday commoner. In a thorough analysis, one can clearly justify that the poem " To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell is a work which delivers a clear theme of carpe diem.
             " To His Coy Mistress" is narrated by a young man heated with passion who is speaking to his mistress. In reading this poem I became convinced that the speaker was Marvell himself because he wrote it with such emotion and grace. The poem begins, "Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime." (Marvell 1-2). The beginning of this poem instantly sets its reader off with a sense of urgency. The opening lines immediately draw you into a story of something that must happen right now with the idea that there is no time to waste. The following lines are mainly about how deep his love runs and the lengths to which he would go for his lady. He speaks of how he would take the time it took to build empires in order to praise every part of her body. .
             Next, the speaker alarms his reader with that same sense of urgency felt in the first two lines. In lines 21 and 22, he says, "But at my back, I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near." (21-22). I think Marvell delivers this second burst of urgency at this particular part of the poem in order to secure in our thoughts with his importance of time. Time is a part of our lives that we never have enough of.