Analysis: To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time By Robert Herrick

Lauren Passmore
Julie Faulkner
Comp 2
7 December 2014
Life’s Hourglass Has no Exceptions: An Explication of Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” Every individual has things they would like to do before his or her hourglass runs out of sand. Many people make up a list of items and call it a bucket list. Items on this list normally consist of traveling, sky-diving, and other things full of adventure. Adventure is geared more toward the young but it is not off limits to the old. In Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” Herrick conveys a theme that expresses readers to search for adventure because time stops for no one. To display this theme of search for adventure because time stops for no one, Herrick uses symbolism and personification to express his ideas.

When the speaker states “And this same flower that smiles today,” (line 3) the speaker is putting human like qualities on an item of nature. Symbolism is expressed using the same flower that also represents life’s cycle. As the speaker states, “Gather ye rose-buds” (line 1), the rose-buds represent the prime of an individual’s life. The rose-buds are meant to be gathered before an individual’s time is up because time stops for no one. In the second stanza, the speaker talks about “The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,” (line 5). The sun is being compared to a lamp in this stanza. The speaker goes on to say “The sooner will his race be run, / And nearer he’s to setting.” (lines 7-8). Personification is displayed when the speaker states that the sun is in a “race” (line 7). The sun is clearly not human, so it is incapable of running a race. Each minute that passes by, the sun is closer to setting and that is another day of life that has passed by. Therefore keep searching before the sun sets and the time goes by even