: : hello...i am trying to find info about the carpe diem theme in seventeenth century poetry...if anyone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated...i am having no luck whatsoever...thank you
I am rather surprised since this is a major theme of 17th century poetry. In fact, the origin of the carpe diem is, of course, classical, and there are several Roman poets (try Horace or Ovid) who treat this theme. The best-known carpe diem poems in English are Herrick's "To the Virgins, to make much of Time," and Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." Whilst carpe diem poems usually deal with a male poet trying to get a woman to have sex with him on the grounds that if she doesn't, she'll get old and everything will either drop off or no-one will be interested in it, some of them are rather more subtle. You could try the 16th century French poet Ronsard, or even W.B. Yeats's :When You are Old," which is a sort of translation of Ronsard but a different and more subtle way of using the carpe diem theme. The problem about your question is that it is not specific enough-- you probably know most of what I've told you here, but feel free to ask a more directed question or questions. As a professor of C17 literature I should be able to help. Sincerely, John A. Butler, Chiba University, Japan