Ethan Griswold
Ms.Jenner
Academic English III
Research Paper
12/20/14
Carpe Diem
Stories were told and lessons were learned through multiple ways throughout history, first with quill and ink and now with pencil. One of the most important lessons taught was from long ago when latin was a common language in present day Europe. Carpe Diem, meaning “seize the day” when translated can also taken to mean “enjoy the day” or even “pluck the day [as it is ripe]”. Authors have used carpe diem numerous times as themes in their poems to urge the reader to take advantage of the time you have now. Times have changed and so literature has as well, today songs are a part of society with their ways of sending messages to the masses. Poems such as “O, Gather Me The Rose”, “To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, and songs like “A Change Of Seasons” use nature from use of diction and symbolism to help readers understand the importance of carpe diem. “O, Gather Me The Rose” by William Ernest
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David Visser explains the history of how nature has been implemented into literature. Around the middle of the 1800’s nature was beginning to be written “realistically” and rather than choosing a side the use of nature was more indifferent compared to being “malevolent” or “beneficent” (Visser). During the last quarter of the 19th century nature was used as a neutral way to symbolize help different kinds of things, such as: love, innocence, experience, and in this case carpe diem. During this brief amount of time poems and stories were written, Henley’s used the help of diction and symbolism in the form of that kind of nature. Between this time and the early part of the 1900’s the portrayal of nature was changed once again to a more “objective” style due to the increase of environmental awareness from the federal government