Innledning
Sonnet 18 and To the virgins, to make much of time is two quite different poems but still a bit alike.
Sonnet 18 is about timeless love to poetry and to the one he loves, while To the virgins, to make much of time is a message to women to hurry up and get married because time is short.
While Sonnet 18 starts by asking “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, which give the reader a feeling that the poem is romantic from the beginning.
To the virgins, … starts by saying “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” which is more of a command and not so romantic and this immediately sets the tone for the poem.
Although both poems in different ways are about love, it is a different love. Sonnet 18 speaks about never losing love, and To the Virgins, … is saying to finding someone before it is to late.
Utdrag
To the virgins, to make much of time talks about time already in the headline, it says to the virgins to use your time well.
Further on in the poem it says “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying” which means that time waits for no one and that you must find a man and marry while you are still young and beautiful.
“The age is best which is the first,” tell us that the younger you are the better because you will be less and less atractive the older you become.
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The poems are both from the renaissance and this help us understand the poems and the language they use.
At that time the lifespan was way shorter, and it was normal to die when you were around thirty or forty years, this help us understand why Herrick, writer of To the virgins, to make much of Time tells virgins to marry early.
And Sonnet 18 is not so forward about death, but Shakespeare do state that death will not be proud of having the one he is talking about in the poem, but that the person will forever live on in the poem.
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