“Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish. “~William Blake

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

Robert Herrick was another loyalist, cavalier poet. However, he was not a soldier, but a clergyman who lost his position as vicar of Dean Prior during Cromwell’s time because of his royalist sympathies. Herrick wrote about several women in his poems, but they may have been imaginary or composites of his crushes because he never married.

To Anthea Who May Command Him Any Thing
Delight in Disorder
To Electra
To Sylvia, To Wed
Upon Julia’s Clothes

I think the last is my favorite. I rather like Herrick’s romantic imagination, gathering rosebuds, even though eventually he failed to take his own advice and did forever tarry in the matter of marriage.

And another strike against the whole “carpe diem” philosophy is that while this scene from the movie Dead Poets Society is wonderful and inspiring, Seize the Day didn’t turn out too well for young Mr. Perry in the movie. Perhaps there’s something more to life than gathering rosebuds and enjoying one’s youth, however lovely the idea.