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Thread: what's the carpe diem theme?

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    what's the carpe diem theme?

    what's the carpe diem theme?
    and what's the work that's reflect "carpe diem"?

    I know only 2 poem that's the best-known.
    Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress.
    Robert Herrick's To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time.

    Do you know more?

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    in angulo cum libro Petrarch's Love's Avatar
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    I don't know exactly what you mean by "carpe diem theme," but I'm assuming you're asking what it means for a poem to take carpe diem as it's theme. Carpe diem is latin for "seize the day." In poetry it is usually associated with poems such as the two very excellent examples you cited, in which a young man encourages a young woman to make love with him, and not to delay one more minute because time passes quickly, youth fades away, and we may die tomorrow. The idea is that she shouldn't be so slow to get into a physical relationship but instead seize the day before it's too late and her day is past. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may," from the Herrick poem, is a line that has become almost synonymous with "carpe diem."

    "In rime sparse il suono/ di quei sospiri ond' io nudriva 'l core/ in sul mio primo giovenile errore"~ Francesco Petrarca
    "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can."~ Jane Austen

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    thank you so much...

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    Registered User Geochelonian's Avatar
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    Carpe diem might best be translated as "harvest the day." Carpere is a word most associated with agriculture.
    Horace Odes 1.11.7-8:
    Dum loquimur, fugerit invidia aetas. Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

    The idea of "seize the day" is also expressed by Horace in Epodes 13.3-4:
    Rapiamus, amici, occasionem de die dumque virent genua
    et decet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus.
    Rapere (from which 'raptor' derives) better conveys the idea of 'seize'.

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    Good morning, Campers! Jay's Avatar
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    You can find carpe diem theme in romanticism, Shelley, Keats, Blake for example. Blake puts it this way:

    To see a World in a Grain of Sand
    And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
    Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
    And Eternity in an hour.
    - William Blake, from Auguries of Innocence
    I have a plan: attack!

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    thank you so much

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    Registered User Anna Seis's Avatar
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    In the 16th and 17th century, spanish poets used to write about that theme. The idea is the same that Petrarch's love said above. Garcilaso de la Vega y Luis de Góngora writed sonnets and letrillas to convince young girls to love them before the age carries away her beauty (it seems the men were always young and beautiful)
    ... no person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatui of superstition.
    Edgar Allan Poe
    Man doth not yield himself to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will.
    Joseph Glanvill

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    Registered User jackyyyy's Avatar
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    In old and modern Portuguese it declares, ' live today like there is no tomorrow '.

    I should add a work:

    Ser poeta é ser mais alto, é ser maior
    Do que os homens! Morder como quem beija!
    É ser mendigo e dar como quem seja
    Rei do Reino de Aquém e de Além Dor!

    É ter de mil desejos o esplendor
    E não saber sequer que se deseja!
    É ter cá dentro um astro que flameja,
    É ter garras e asas de condor!

    É ter fome, é ter sede de infinito!
    Por elmo, as manhãs de ouro e de cetim...
    É condensar o mundo num só grito!

    E é amar-te, assim, perdidamente...
    É seres alma e sangue e vida em mim
    E dizê-lo cantando a toda gente!

    {

    the last part... (rough).. and to love yourself, crazy/losingly,, and to have soul and blood of life for me, and tell this singing to everyone.

    }
    Last edited by jackyyyy; 03-17-2006 at 08:29 PM.
    Art is art.

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    Registered User Anna Seis's Avatar
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    Jackyyy, I didn't read Portuguese Poetry. What's your poet's name?
    He talks about a condor. A condor is a South American bird of prey. Is he a brazilian poet?
    ... no person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatui of superstition.
    Edgar Allan Poe
    Man doth not yield himself to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will.
    Joseph Glanvill

  11. #11
    in angulo cum libro Petrarch's Love's Avatar
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    In the 16th and 17th century, spanish poets used to write about that theme. The idea is the same that Petrarch's love said above. Garcilaso de la Vega y Luis de Góngora writed sonnets and letrillas to convince young girls to love them before the age carries away her beauty (it seems the men were always young and beautiful)
    It was a popular form in 16th and 17th century England too. Your post reminded me of some of the beautiful sonnets of Garcilaso de la Vega. Here is one with a carpe diem theme:


    En tanto que de rosa y d'azucena
    se muestra la color en vuestro gesto,
    y que vuestro mirar ardiente, honesto,
    con clara luz la tempestad serena;
    y en tanto que'l cabello, que'n la vena
    del oro s'escogió, con vuelo presto
    por el hermoso cuello blanco, enhiesto,
    el viento mueve, esparce y desordena:
    coged de vuestra alegre primavera
    el dulce fruto antes que’ll tiempo airado
    cobra de nieve la Hermosa cumber.
    Marchitará la rosa el viento helado,
    todo lo mudará la edad ligera
    por no hacer mudanza en su costumbre.


    While the colors of roses and lilies are still to be seen in your face, and while your ardent, chaste eyes inflame the heart and restrain it; and while your hair, selected from veins of gold, in a flutter about your lovely neck, so long and white, is blown, scattered and disarranged by the wind: gather the sweet fruit of joyful springtime before sullen time covers with snow your lovely head. the icy wind will shrivel the rose, fleeting time will change everything in order not to change its usual custom. --Trans. Elias Rivers

    "In rime sparse il suono/ di quei sospiri ond' io nudriva 'l core/ in sul mio primo giovenile errore"~ Francesco Petrarca
    "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can."~ Jane Austen

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    Registered User Anna Seis's Avatar
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    You`re right. Luis de Gongora has a very similar one:

    Mientras por competir con tu cabello,
    oro bruñido al sol relumbra en vano;
    mientras con menosprecio en medio el llano
    mira tu blanca frente el lilio bello;

    mientras a cada labio, por cogello,
    siguen más ojos que al clavel temprano;
    y mientras triunfa con desdén lozano
    del luciente cristal tu gentil cuello;

    goza cuello, cabello, labio y frente,
    antes que lo que fue en tu edad dorada
    oro, lilio, clavel, cristal luciente,

    no sólo en plata o viola troncada
    se vuelva, mas tú y ello juntamente
    en tierra, en humo, en polvo, en sombra, en nada.

    Very probably there must be some intertextuality.Góngora also has a most popular song:

    Mozuelas, las de mi barrio,
    loquillas y confiadas,
    mirad, nos engaña el tiempo,
    la edad y la confianza,
    no os dejéis lisonjear
    de la juventud lozana,
    ved que de caducas flores
    teje el tiempo sus guirnaldas...

    and so on. The obvious purpose is go with the girls behind of the doors, as he says in another poem. But was a great master and an amusing people, this old Luis
    ... no person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatui of superstition.
    Edgar Allan Poe
    Man doth not yield himself to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will.
    Joseph Glanvill

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    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    As someone above (terribly sorry, I didn't pay attention who wrote it) mentioned, Carpe Diem was prominent in Romanticism. It was the Romantics' way of challenging the logic of the Enlightenment era.

    If you ever happen to read Goethe, you will find some good examples.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

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    Registered User jackyyyy's Avatar
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    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by Anna Seis
    Jackyyy, I didn't read Portuguese Poetry. What's your poet's name?
    He talks about a condor. A condor is a South American bird of prey. Is he a brazilian poet?

    Florbela Espanca, Portuguese. This is widely known in Brazil, not sure about Portugal. Yes, she also writes of, ' having the wings of a Condor '.

    I want to add that its still common today, this Carpe Diem theme; forget the past, the future, only think of now (today).
    Last edited by jackyyyy; 03-17-2006 at 09:27 PM.
    Art is art.

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    Registered User Nerd's Avatar
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    The Romantics were big on "carpe diem."

    Tennyson's poem Ulysses... those last two lines ... it's a bit long, I suppose, but definitely worth it. I have a book of his (all of his collected works), and I marked that one in particular.

    Song of Myself (I sound my barbaric yawp from the rooftops of the world) is a great one if you want to read 50 pages of Whitman. haha.

    Handy just to know lines from it. Yeah, psshhh, I'm cool like that.
    Tis only in their dreams that men truly be free;
    'Twas always thus, and always thus will be.

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