Assignment: - 1 "Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' Unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical poetry"

Assignment: - 1 "Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical poetry"



TOPIC OF THE BLOG: -


This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 101 - Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods, Sem - 1, 2023.


            "Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical poetry"


TABLE OF CONTENTS:-


 Personal information

 ❍ Assignment Details

 Abstract

 Keywords

 ❍ Introduction
 
  Carpe Diem (Origin, Meaning, Use)

  Metaphysical Poetry

 Examples of Carpe Diem Poems

 ❍ Conclusion
 
 ❍ Work Cited

PERSONAL INFORMATION:-

 
Name: - Priyanshiba Kanaksinh Gohil

Batch No: M.A. Sem 1 (2023-2025)

Enrollment Number: - 5108230018 

E-mail Address: - priyabagohil7126@gmail.com

Roll Number: - 25

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS: -


Topic: -"Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical poetry"

Paper & subject code: - 101 - Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods & 22392

Submitted to: - Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar.

Date of Submission: - 01st December, 2023

About Assignment: - In this Assignment, I try to Explore the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling passion and fulfillment in Metaphysical Poetry.


ABSTRACT:- 


Carpe Diem is a style of poetry formulated during the English civil war. Literally Carpe Diem means, Seize the Day. It describes the passion of society and how their mentality on fulfillment of their lives. Metaphysical poetry was popularized after this, when the people started using science to explain what previous beliefs had based on religion. Song, Holy Sonnet 10, and To His Coy Mistress, all give a different but clear picture of what metaphysical and Carpe Diem poems are, though not all of them depict both elements. A paradox is a strong statement that contradicts itself, but in sense brings light to stimulate the imagination by the use of intellect. But think that we, are but turned aside to sleep, they who one another keep, Alive but parted be. Dunne infers that they will die, but nothing could separate a love as strong as theirs; so, will fall asleep resting on each other, together forever. This is a very creative and ingenious line because it gives extremely vague references, but at the same time gets the feeling off extremely well. This leads for the reader to imagine what he gets from the poem, broadening the poems horizons further than the author could have ever written literally. Song can also be looked at as being a Carpe Diem poem also. The First Stanza picked apart gives the sense that life is not long, don't think bad thoughts, and keep focused on the good, because you never know when you will die. In turn showing the same poem as a Metaphysical and Carpe Diem with a conjoined approach to stimulate the reader and get across the authors feelings.


KEYWORDS: 


Pluck the day, enjoy, seize, use, make use of.... 


INTRODUCTION: -


The first time I heard the phrase Carpe Diem, I wasn’t sure what to think. First of all, I had never heard either of the words used in the phrase. Secondly, after repeating the words in my head a few times to see if I was getting them mixed up with some other words that are actually in the English Language. I later came to figure out that these words weren’t in the English Language at all; they’re in the dead language of Latin. This phrase’s literal translation in English is “Seize the Day. There are a number of similar phrases that are popular today that might be easier to understand. The most recent, and possibly more popular, is Yolo, meaning You Only Live Once. These two phrase’s purposes are to tell people to live each day like it’s their last. Robert Herrick’s Poem: To the Virgins to Make Much of Time, is a perfect way to tell others how to live each day to the fullest when he says “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying. This is the first stanza to his poem, and in my opinion is the best stanza of the poem. Herrick’s meaning behind this stanza is basically to Seize the Day. This stanza’s translation, to me, is to do what you want while you can because you will not live forever, and if you don’t do what you want today, then tomorrow you might not get the chance to do anything at all. The reason that we’re studying Carpe Diem is because of the movie Dead Poets Society. The setting of Dead Poets Society takes place in the 50’s at an all-boy’s prep school, where it always seems to be cold. A new English teacher, Mr. Keating, at the school inspires a group of kids to start an underground poetry reading group, where the students read poems written by dead poets, or written by themselves. All of the poems read at these meetings follow the same meaning: carpe diem. The name of this group is the Dead Poets Society. 

Carpe Diem (Origin, Meaning, Use)


Carpe diem, (Latin: “pluck the day” or “seize the day”) phrase used by the Roman poet Horace to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can. Carpe diem is part of Horace’s injunction “carpe diem Quam minimum cédula postero,” which appears in his Odes (I.11), published in 23 BCE. It can be translated literally as “pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the next one.” The phrase carpe diem has come to stand for Horace’s entire injunction, and it is more widely known as “seize the day. "This sentiment has been expressed in many literatures before and after Horace. It appears in ancient Greek literature, especially lyric poetry, and it intersects with the teachings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus and what would come to be known as Epicureanism. In English literature it was a particular preoccupation of poets during the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the Cavalier poetsRobert Herrick expressed a sharp sense of carpe diem in the first stanza of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” (included in Hesperides, published 1648):


Andrew Marvell, the most prominent of the Metaphysical poetsdeployed the sentiment through a lover’s impatience in “To His Coy Mistress” (published posthumously in 1681). It begins with its speaker chiding the mistress of the poem’s title:


Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.

But time is short, the poem continues, so


Now let us sport us while we may.
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour.
Then languish in his slow-chapped power
.

The earliest known uses of carpe diem in print in English date to the early 19th century. Robert Frost took on the subject with his poem “Carpe Diem,” first published in 1938. In it children are encouraged by a figure called Age to “‘Be happy, happy, happy / And seize the day of pleasure.’” By the 21st century the phrase could be found in the names of catering companies, gyms, and educational travel organizations.

Metaphysical Poetry 

In the book Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1179-1781)”, the author Samuel Johnson made the first use of the word Metaphysical Poetry. He used the term Metaphysical poets to define a loose group of the poets of the 17th century. The group was not formal and most of the poets put in this category did not know or read each other’s writings. This group’s most prominent poets include John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Abraham Cowley, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Richard Crashaw, and others. He noted in his writing that these poets had the same style of wit and conceit in their poetry.

Definition of Metaphysical poetry:
Metaphysical poetry is a genre of poetry that deals with deep and profound subjects like spirituality, religion, etc. It is highly intellectual form of poetry and presents the world to its readers in a different way. It asks questions that science cannot answer. Metaphysical poetry prompts the readers to question their reality and existence. It takes one beyond the physical world and gives new perspectives through its imagery, wit, and paradox.

Examples of Carpe Diem Poems
First of all, Holy Sonnet 10 is an excellent presentation of a Carpe Dieme and of the thought process behind the ideas of it. Holy Sonnet 10 represents a so-called obsession with death that the people living in the time frame acquired. They represented their feelings and suppressed lives with their poetry. The lifestyle of a person living during a civil war is an intense day-by-day struggle to live. Every second there is a chance that you will not live to see the next day. This inspired the authors to fill their poems with passion and a spontaneous attitude. Their attitude was not only spontaneous, but also fulfilling to their own personal nature. Carpe Diem was the reaction to the general population's life span decreasing
Second of all, To His Coy Mistress, is another Carpe Dime poem. It shows the time diminishing in the populous. As most other Carpe Dime poems, To His Coy Mistress, deals with the fulfillment of ones dreams and the taking over of ones life. This poem relates to a recent movie that was just released, American Beauty. In the movie the husband gets sick of sitting around and waiting for his own death. So he takes control of his life and does what makes him happy, and with little dismay, he was killed. He died happy and fulfilled, just like what the man into His Coy Mistress is trying to say. He wants to experience the pleasures of life before his time comes and Worms will get her virginity. 

Last of all, Song, by John Dunne, portrays both of these elements of mental status. A strong indication of, Song, relating to Carpe Diem and Metaphysical poetry are the techniques and devices used within them. Metaphysical conceits are a readily used device found in Metaphysical poems. A Metaphysical Conceit is an ingenious and unusual comparison. 


 conclusion:


As Metaphysical and Carpe Diem poems are sometimes used together in such ways as Song, by John Dunne, they can also be picked apart as separate and intricate poems by themselves. Metaphysical conceits and paradoxes bring the life and character out, influenced by the reader and his intellect; so, as Carpe Diem poems bring out the full-blossomed lives that were lived to the fullest degree possible. Both poem writing styles were unique and rebellious to their time frames, and created the opening for a more open-minded population that would lead to many more discoveries and innovations which would not have been possible without the poet's creativity and outpouring of feeling.


work cited:



Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2023, September 22). carpe diem. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/carpe-diem


Free Essays - PhDessay.com. (2023). “Exploring the Essence of ‘Carpe Diem’: Unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical Poetry

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