15 years on: appreciating my high school literature class (1)

Fifteen years ago, I sat in Miss Connie Apalin's literature course at the University of the Philippines Rural High School, daunted by the task ahead of me: to pass her course, students were required to memorise poetry from various authors and recite them in class. I was petrified with the prospect. One, I don't like the complications figures of speech bring to poetry. Two, I am not fond of memorising. Three, I have terrible stage fright. But since I had to pass the course, I sucked it up and went through with the it.

Many years on, I could still recall words of the poets introduced to me in that literature course... particularly on special occasions. I guess that's the beauty of studying the classics. It took me a while, but I am growing to appreciate these works of art.

I'm writing today about one of the poems I learned in that class. The lesson from that poem is to take life by the horns...carpe diem. When I first read it, I thought that the author was encouraging young women not to be choosy when it comes to suitors and to get married before they become old maids. Come to think of it, when the poem was written in the mid-17th century, the author might have been encouraging women to seize all the opportunities they could to land a husband. After all, the poem was published during the English Civil War (1): a time when the men went off to battle;  the women might have had fewer husband material to select from. In modern times, however, women have more opportunities to grow. In this scenario, "Seizing the day" no longer equates to "get married while you're young". Instead, it becomes: "make your life extraordinary" (2). This quote was made memorable by John Keating, the English professor in the movie Dead Poet's Society (1989).

This poem is no other than To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick (1648) (3).

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.

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 for ever tarry.

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References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_civil_war
2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/quotes
3. http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herrick/tovirgins.htm