To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time (Gather ye rosebuds) Time Quotes

The speaker uses a metaphor (time flying) that is so familiar that it's become a cliché. He suggests that there is still time left for the virgins to "gather" their "rosebuds."

These lines immediately follow the ones about time "a-flying," suggesting that the passage of time is responsible for the flower's transition from "smiling" to "dying." The rhyme on "a-flying" and "dying" suggests as much, implying that letting time "fly" is one way to "die."

The sun's journey through the sky is another instance of the passage of time in the poem; the word "a-getting" links the passage with the preceding stanza ("a-flying," 2) and its interest in death. Ironically, the closer the sun gets to its high point – the point when it is directly overhead – the closer it gets to "setting." The sun's high point (like the virgins' "prime," 15) is, strangely, a low point, because as soon as it reaches the high point, it starts to set.

There are a lot of words here that have to do with time: "age," "first," and "youth." It's strange that the best time of life is when "youth and blood are warmer," because the previous stanza suggests that the higher the sun gets – the sun gets "warmer" as it progresses, up to a certain point – the closer it is to setting. The metaphors in the poem seem to trip over each other.

These lines pick up the themes of lines 5 to 8. In the same way that the sun's progress brings it one step closer to "setting," so too does the end of youth bring "worse, and worst / Times," a metaphorical "setting" of sorts. Throughout the poem, but especially in these lines, the poem doesn't seem to place any value on aging.

The speaker reiterates the carpe diem (or "seize the day") theme from the first line, explicitly describing it as a proper use of time. There might be some wordplay going on with that word "marry." The speaker encourages the virgins to get married, but he might also expect us to hear the word "merry," as if getting married were also a way of making oneself "merry."

As he's done throughout, the speaker suggests that if the virgins don't act during their "prime," that's it – game over. Interestingly, he describes the bleakness of their post-prime years in terms of "tarrying," which means delaying, prolonging, protracting, etc. Does he mean they will prolong their unmarried state, or spend the rest of their life being idle?