Corinna's Going A-Maying Inertia Quotes

The repetition of "get up" makes this command even more insistent, while the "for shame" reminds us that being lazy is something to be embarrassed about.

This speaker keeps it together. He's impatient but still affectionate, and when Corinna doesn't respond to one argument, he switches to a new one in the next stanza. Talk about resourceful.

No one in the village is waiting on them—the cream cakes are probably completely obliterated—but nature's willing to dawdle a little for a good purpose. Note the contrast, though, between these lines and stanza 5. Night's willing to stand still in stanza 2, but by stanza 5 it looks like everyone's patience has run out: "Our life is short, and our days run / As fast away as does the sun" (61-2). So don't test your luck too far, Corinna.

It's a sin to miss May Day, but lazily skimming through your morning prayers? No problemo. This poem discourages physical and philosophical inertia, the kind that drags your hand back to the snooze button when a new day of possibilities beckons. But religious inertia is encouraged.

Here the speaker tries to fill Corinna with FOMO on all the fun happening without them. He contrasts her dreams with the rich, sweet, delicious, three-dimensional pleasures of the real world. Corinna might be dreaming about being Queen of England, but that imaginary fun has nothing on a cream cake being eaten in real time.

It's essential to go now, while they are young and happy and in love. If he can't rouse Corinna to get in the May, then before you know it, they'll both be haggard and limping. Or at least that's the hyperbole he wants her to believe. He's actually speaking about laziness in general, which procrastinates and wastes time and watches opportunities drift by like bubbles. And suddenly you wake up 99 years old and realize you've done nothing.