Carpe Diem

The words carpe diem mean "seize the day" in Latin. It is a theme that has been used throughout the history of literature and has been a popular philosophy in teaching from the times of Socrates and Plato up to the modern English classroom. Carpe diem says to us that life isn't something we have forever, and every passing moment is another opportunity to make the most out of the few precious years that we have left. In the poems "A Fine, a Private Place" by Diane Ackerman and "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, carpe diem is the underlying theme that ties them together, yet there are still a few key differences throughout each of these two poems that shows two very different perspectives on how one goes about seizing their day.

The first poem by Ackerman is about two lovers who find their own special place to make love: under water. The writer describes the captured moment over four stanzas of the undersea world, describing physical attributes and actions with marine life. The woman in the poem is described as "his sea-geisha / in an orange kimono / of belts and vests, / her lacquered hair waving" (Lines 24-27) and the man with "his sandy hair / and sea-blue eyes, his kelp thin waist / and chest ribbed wider / than a sandbar / where muscles domed / clear and taunt as shells" (Lines 34-40) Ackerman's poem has a feeling of tranquility and patience, capturing the moment and enhancing it to its fullest extent. She portrays sex as a beautiful act, saying "he pumped his brine / deep within her, / letting sea water drive it / through petals / delicate as anemone veils / to the dark purpose / of a conch-shaped womb" (Lines 68-72). The love between the two seems that it will be eternal. Time seems to stand still in this poem, seizing a moment between two lovers and accentuating it with nature's majesty.

The second poem by Marvell isn't quite as flowing and pretty. Marvell writes about a man who is completely infatuated with a woman and must have sex with her before time catches up with them. The woman is shy and refuses the man, but he tells her that if he had all the time in the world, they "would sit down, and think which way / To walk, and pass our long love's day" (Lines 3-4) and she would sit by the Indian Ganges river and collect rubies while he sang her love songs by the side of the Humber river. His love for her is temporary however, feeding only on her physical attributes, whereas in Ackerman's poem, the love shown is precious and makes time stand still. In the next stanza he tells the woman that one day her beauty will no longer exist and that his "echoing song" (Line 27) will no longer sound in her "marble vault" (Line 26). He warns her to seize her opportunity to have sex with him