The Analysis of the Poem To His Coy Mistress - Essay Example

‘Seize the day,’ or carpe diem, in Latin, is how the phrase is translated.  However, it literally means, ‘pluck the day.’  One must take the day at its face value and use it to its fullest extent.  In other words, seizing the day, we must not waste a moment and/or take it for granted at all. Friendship, however, was an altogether entirely different animal.  Friendship is particularly an interesting theme that Shakespeare the depths of which he was able to plumb. Before one ever gets into a love relationship or a marriage, it’s important to be prepared in one’s mind, and spirit, for a relationship.  One needs to have confidence in one’s friendships first.  Friends have to know how to love themselves.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but loving oneself is the first step to learning how to love someone else.  One should love oneself unconditionally, just the way one is.  One must, ultimately, love oneself, first and foremost.  It’s not being selfish, it’s not being self-centered; one must simply be convinced of the fact that everyone deserves love just as much as anyone else.  Loving oneself encompasses so much more than just liking oneself. 

            Additionally, one must earn how to love others.  In addition to loving oneself, and being one’s own friend, one must also learn how to love other people.  Sometimes, doing works of charity or service can give a person extra luck.  In order to love other people, one must forgive oneself for any past problems one may have caused or perpetuated between oneself and others.  One must infuse oneself with positive energy and be a source of hope for other people.  Once one can do this, one will know that one has truly been able to love other people, because other people will be depending on oneself.

One wants to be an emotionally strong person.  One should show that one is strong enough to handle relationships by conveying one’s sense of emotional maturity.  One must come into one’s own by realizing what is the childish way to handle a situation, and what is the grown-up answer to a problem.  Once one takes accountability for one’s actions as a fully-functioning human being, then and only then can one be completely emotionally honest with oneself as well as other people.  Without this kind of strength and understanding, it will be difficult to be in a relationship that will last for any length of time.

            The main importance of this poem, and the factor ‘why we should care,’ is because this poem is a call from the past to recognize the elemental nature of human life:  that life is short, and—whether we have friendships and/or lovers, we should learn to cherish both because time passes quickly and, at any rate, is most definitely passing by at a rate that is faster than we might expect.

            In the end, climaxing, the poet Marvell clearly states, “Let us roll our strength…into one sweet ball/…tearing…Through the iron gates of life.”  Then he talks about making the sun stand still, and yet make it run.  Marvell has shown, in this poem, the various epochs of life, why lovers should ‘seize the day,’ and the true meaning of life—that we should live it fully because we never should take our days for granted because we don’t know when it will end.  Marvell’s poem speaks to the beauty of nature, the everlasting wonder of love, and touches upon so many chords that strike within us.  Ultimately, he touches our hearts by reminding us that love truly is the most wonderful and deepest human experience we can feel in this life, and that, if we come and go from this world knowing that we are loved, that nothing else necessarily matters.  Hopefully, the real-life message that can be applied to this is that we can come to know each other more deeply because we know life is short.