The story behind my Tattoo

“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick, is one of my favorite poems—and certainly my favorite carpe diem poem. Although these carpe diem poems were usually templates for asking women to loosen up for the sake of enjoying life (sexuality) while they still have youth and frivolity, I got the opening line of “To the Virgins…” tattooed on my shoulder blade.

For me, the line, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” has been a personal motto for many years, so of course, I am partial to this poem. I do however, fully enjoy Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” even for the reasons in which it differs from Herrick’s work. Much of “Mistress” pertains to the characteristics of time itself, and how if given the opportunity, the pursuer would give all the time in the world to just admire this woman from afar. He spends much of the rest of the poem explaining how in reality, the two of them must hasten their courtship because, “at my back I always hear/Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;” and if she wants to lose her virginity respectably, she must to it before it happens in the grave by the worms. This kind of time-related extrapolation that Marvell creates in his poem is not present in Herrick’s sensible, beautiful poem. The rhythm Herrick incorporates in “To the Virgins…” is very sing-songy (it’s quite literally gotten stuck in my head on numerous occasions) which allows for a relaxed pleasure not demonstrated in Marvell’s work. Herrick takes no sudden dark turns with his poem, although the poems align at the end of each in the same plea that these women be not wasteful of their precious time, because exploring sexuality while young and beautiful is picking the fruit while ripe.

#carpediem #tattoo #sex #life