A days time
A days timeCenturies apart Robert Herrick and Robert Frost wrote poems illustrating the brevity of life. “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Herrick and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Frost are the two poems which address the limited time humanity, especially the time of youth, has to spend in this life. Both authors use nature to symbolize the shortness of life and the time spent in youth.
A symbol of nature utilized in both poems is a flower. In full bloom, a flower is in its most beautiful and prolific state. In youth, man is in the same state of a flower in bloom, resplendent and bountiful, but the time of beauty for a flower and youth is short. Herrrick states in lines 3-4 “And this same flower that smiles today,/ Tommorrow will be dying,”(728) which is a symbol of the shortness of youth. Frost in lines 3-4 “Her early leaf’s a flower;/ But only so an hour,”(989) also symbolizes the fleeting time of youth. In the beginning, a flower and youth are filled with vitality, but in a short amount of time the flower will wilt and die, and the youth will be an adult on a passage to death.
The second...
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