Carpe Diem or Amitte Diem?

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a poem that centers on carpe diem and the instantaneous gratification of the shepherd’s sexual passion. In the poem, the shepherd strives to persuade the nymph to experience the joys of love and nature without repercussions and responsibility. He offers her a life of leisure and abundance of worldly things. This may be charming for some people because of the fervent choice of words. Indeed, the shepherd seems to have a sweet tongue but what we fail to understand is that the shepherd’s idealistic view of love is impractical and juvenile. It is impractical because the things that he is offering are merely evanescent possessions that would fade as time passes by. It would appear easy if the nymph just went with anything the shepherd says and they would end up with a ‘perfect life’. Unfortunately, this utopian belief does not apply in the real world because life is bound to have hardships and it is inevitable to experience difficulties.

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd, on the other hand, is a poem that combines carpe diem with tempus fugit. Normally, we would seize the day because time flies and we may regret the day we lose an opportunity but the poem argues that because time flies, we should not seize the day. Time does not stand still and things change; therefore, we cannot act on impulses until we have examined the consequences. The nymph asks theoretical questions that rebuke the naivety of the man's proposal because all that he offers is temporary. This poem leans on the practical aspects of man wherein he should be cautious in dealing with life and reminds us that love is not always sweet and it doesn't always look beautiful.

Both poems teach us that the world will not remain young and things will eventually disappear. Frolicking and indulging in our desires may seem to be a good idea because we only live once but we should remember that everything we do have a concurrent responsibility and we should be prepared for...