To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

By Robert Herrick

“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” is Robert Herrick’s 1648 poem urging young women to marry while they are young, because time, beauty, and youth all fade. Published as poem 208 of his collection Hesperides, its 16 lines open with one of the most famous lines in English: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

Our reading: this is the tamest of the great “seize the day” poems. A clergyman takes an argument usually aimed at seduction and points it at the altar, then ends on a warning much sharper than its cheerful, hymn-like tune suggests.

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Summary · The Poem · Background · Analysis and Themes · Form and Technique · Notable Lines · Themes · FAQ
Glossary · In Popular Culture · Related Poems

Summary

The speaker advises young, unmarried women not to waste their youth. Gather your rosebuds now, he says, because time is always flying, and the flower that blooms today will be dying tomorrow. He points to the sun: the higher it climbs, the closer it is to setting.

Youth, he argues, is the best time of life, and every age after it is worse than the one before. So he ends with a plain instruction: do not be shy, use your time, and marry while you can. If you let your prime slip away even once, you may wait forever.

The Poem

Herrick’s poem is given here in full, following the text of Hesperides (1648) in modern spelling.

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 for ever tarry.

Background

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English poet and Anglican clergyman, one of the “Sons of Ben” who took Ben Jonson as their model. He served as vicar of Dean Prior in Devon, and in 1648 he published Hesperides, a collection of more than 1,100 short poems on which his whole reputation rests. This poem is number 208.

Its theme is carpe diem, Latin for “seize the day,” a phrase from the Roman poet Horace. The rosebud image is older still. The biblical Book of Wisdom (2:8) has the pleasure-seekers say, “Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered,” and a late Latin poem long attributed to Ausonius ends with the advice “collige, virgo, rosas,” “gather, girl, the roses.” Herrick fell out of fashion after his death and was largely forgotten until the early 1800s. Today, this is by far his best-known poem.

Analysis and Themes

For all its fame as a “seize the day” poem, the argument here is careful and conservative. Herrick builds his case from nature, points its urgency toward something respectable, and closes on a warning sharper than the cheerful tune lets on.

Rosebuds, the Sun, and the Argument From Nature

The poem persuades with two images. The first is the rosebud, the classic emblem of youth and beauty, which “smiles today” and will be “dying” tomorrow. The second is the sun, “The glorious lamp of heaven,” whose climb toward noon is already a journey toward sunset. Both make the same point: decline is not the opposite of bloom, but built into it.

Because the argument comes from nature rather than from a sermon, it feels like simple observation instead of scolding. If the rose and the sun obey this rule, the poem implies, so do you.

Carpe Diem, With a Respectable Twist

This is where the poem surprises readers who expect seduction. The other great carpe diem poems of the period, such as Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” use “time is short” as an argument for the bedroom. Herrick, a clergyman, uses it as an argument for the altar: “use your time, / And while ye may, go marry.” The urgency is real, but the recommended action is marriage, not abandon.

A modern reader should also notice whose time is being managed. The poem speaks only to young women, and it assumes that a woman’s “prime” is a short window for marriage. The charm of the verse should not hide the social pressure inside it.

The Sting in the Last Line

The final stanza turns from observation to command, and the closing lines carry a quiet threat: “For having lost but once your prime, / You may for ever tarry.” Miss the moment a single time, and you may be left waiting, unmarried, for good.

“For ever” lands hard against the light, lilting music of the verse. That gap between manner and message is the poem’s real art: it delivers a reminder of mortality and lost chances in the sweet tone of a wedding song.

Form and Technique

The poem has 16 lines in four quatrains, rhyming ABAB. The lines alternate between iambic tetrameter, with four beats (“the SOON-er WILL his RACE be RUN”), and iambic trimeter, with three. That pattern is close to the common meter of hymns and ballads, which gives the poem its brisk, singable swing.

Herrick sweetens the verse with feminine rhymes, soft two-syllable pairs such as “a-flying” and “dying,” “warmer” and “former,” and “marry” and “tarry.” Old-fashioned touches like “ye,” “a-flying,” and “a-getting” give the poem the air of a timeless saying. All that brightness does deliberate work: it makes a poem about decay and death go down like a song.

Notable Lines

Three passages carry the poem’s argument, from its famous opening to its warning.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;

Lines 1 to 2

One of the most quoted openings in English. The rosebud stands for youth and beauty, and “Old Time,” pictured as a winged figure, is already flying away.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;

Lines 9 to 10

The poem’s whole philosophy in two lines: youth is the peak, and everything after it is a decline.

For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

Lines 15 to 16

The sting. The light rhythm carries a heavy threat: one missed chance could mean waiting forever.

Themes

Four ideas shape the poem, all of them tied to the passing of time.

Seize the day. Life and beauty are brief, so the moment must be used before it passes.

Time and decay. Flowers wilt and the sun sets, and the poem treats decline as built into every bloom.

Youth. The first age of life is the best, and each age after it is worse.

Marriage. The poem channels its urgency into a respectable goal, reflecting the limited choices open to young women in the 1600s.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions readers most often ask about Herrick’s poem and its famous first line.

What Does “Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May” Mean?

It means “enjoy life while you are young, because youth passes quickly.” The rosebuds stand for the pleasures and chances of youth, which fade as fast as flowers.

Who Wrote “Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May”?

Robert Herrick wrote it. The line opens his poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” published in his collection Hesperides in 1648.

What Is “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” About?

It is about the shortness of youth. The speaker urges young women to stop being shy and to marry while they are still young, because time, beauty, and opportunity all fade.

What Is the Theme of the Poem?

The theme is carpe diem, or “seize the day.” The poem argues that life is brief and youth is its best part, so it should not be wasted.

What Does “Tarry” Mean in the Poem?

“Tarry” means to wait or linger. In the last line, “You may for ever tarry” warns that a young woman who misses her chance may wait, unmarried, for the rest of her life.

Glossary

These older words and forms may snag a first reading.

• ye (lines 1 and 14): An old form of “you,” used in addressing a group.
• a-flying, a-getting (lines 2 and 6): The old “a-” prefix marks an action in progress: flying along, climbing higher.
• succeed (line 12): Follow after, not achieve.
• coy (line 13): Shy or reluctant, especially about courtship.
• prime (line 15): The time of greatest youth, strength, and beauty.
• tarry (line 16): Wait, linger, or delay.

In Popular Culture

The opening line has become a byword for “seize the day,” in film and in art.

Dead Poets Society (1989): In the film’s famous carpe diem scene, Robin Williams’s teacher John Keating tells a student to open his “hymnal” (the class poetry textbook) to page 542 and read the first stanza of the poem. Keating then uses it to explain carpe diem and to urge the boys to seize the day.

John William Waterhouse: The painter used the line as the title of two oil paintings, Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May (1908 and 1909), both showing young women picking flowers.

Related Poems

If this poem stays with you, these three make natural companions.

• To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell: The period’s other great carpe diem poem, which presses the same argument toward seduction rather than marriage.
• To Daffodils by Robert Herrick: Herrick’s gentler poem on the same theme, watching flowers fade as a mirror of our own short lives.
• Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare: Another poem on beauty and time, which answers decay with the permanence of verse instead of urgency.