Lovely introduction to this poem! I sent it to a friend of mine, also a mother of three active and outdoorsy little girls, because this call is fairly familiar to us, though couched in different terms from the little voices we here. I remember my little brother shouting "WAKE UP, THE SKY IS PINK".
Thanks for introducing me to this poem. I think this is the closest the English language is gonna get to a xmas song playing loudly on the radio. Extraordinary energy and clear structure. I kept seeing bright colors while reading, but when I looked back at the poem the colors were not there. I think this is my first experience of synesthesia.
Lovely analysis and what music in the last stanza. Along with Herrick one thinks of Marvell’s theatrical narrator in “To his Coy Mistress,” imploring, threatening, wryly remarking, “The grave’s a fine and private place / But none, I think, do there embrace”; (sad to report that today’s students largely dislike him and the poem). There is also Peter de Vries’ witty tribute to Marvell, “To his Importunate Mistress”; Robin Williams’ popularizing turn in Dead Poets Society, when he urges the class to look at the pictures of the former students who are “now pushing up daffodils” and hear them whisper, “Carpe diem,” which he rephrases as “Make of your lives something extraordinary.” All a long way from the grimly Stoic locus classicus, Horace 1.11 (Ut Melius quicquid erit pati, “how much better to endure whatever will be,” with its dark images of unknowable future winters and crashing sea waves preceding the advice to be wise, strain the wine, and cut back long hope. And then the final dark reflection: Dum loquimur, fugerit invida/ aetas; carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero, “While we speak, envious time will have fled; seize (pluck) the day, trusting in the next one as little as possible.” Such a rich topic. Thanks.
My hope is always that somebody who knows my subject a lot better than I do will come along and leave a really illuminating comment, such as Dr. Miola's!
Lovely introduction to this poem! I sent it to a friend of mine, also a mother of three active and outdoorsy little girls, because this call is fairly familiar to us, though couched in different terms from the little voices we here. I remember my little brother shouting "WAKE UP, THE SKY IS PINK".
Love the poem, and what a wonderful and helpful analysis. Thank you!
Thanks for introducing me to this poem. I think this is the closest the English language is gonna get to a xmas song playing loudly on the radio. Extraordinary energy and clear structure. I kept seeing bright colors while reading, but when I looked back at the poem the colors were not there. I think this is my first experience of synesthesia.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Thank God for Herrick!
Lovely analysis and what music in the last stanza. Along with Herrick one thinks of Marvell’s theatrical narrator in “To his Coy Mistress,” imploring, threatening, wryly remarking, “The grave’s a fine and private place / But none, I think, do there embrace”; (sad to report that today’s students largely dislike him and the poem). There is also Peter de Vries’ witty tribute to Marvell, “To his Importunate Mistress”; Robin Williams’ popularizing turn in Dead Poets Society, when he urges the class to look at the pictures of the former students who are “now pushing up daffodils” and hear them whisper, “Carpe diem,” which he rephrases as “Make of your lives something extraordinary.” All a long way from the grimly Stoic locus classicus, Horace 1.11 (Ut Melius quicquid erit pati, “how much better to endure whatever will be,” with its dark images of unknowable future winters and crashing sea waves preceding the advice to be wise, strain the wine, and cut back long hope. And then the final dark reflection: Dum loquimur, fugerit invida/ aetas; carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero, “While we speak, envious time will have fled; seize (pluck) the day, trusting in the next one as little as possible.” Such a rich topic. Thanks.
Rich commentary.
My hope is always that somebody who knows my subject a lot better than I do will come along and leave a really illuminating comment, such as Dr. Miola's!
My favourite 17th c. poet!
Although Corinna's name comes from Ovid, this feels to me much more influenced by Tibullus.
Needed to learn To Daffodils at school. Can still remember most of it if prompted. Thank you!
Good school you attended.
Ordinary Welsh grammar school in the 70s