The Bane of Life and Beauty: Time

The Bane of Life and Beauty: Time

"For every man, Time is an emptying reservoir; to fret over how much you have left only wastes it." - Lee Connolly. In every person's mind, a clock is running. A pendulum is constantly swinging and ticking into the future, into the unknown. Every person must, at sometime, recognize Time as a measurement of their own life and not something that can be ignored and forgotten about. As long as there have been life there has been death, and Time is simply a tool in which nature uses to remind us of this. Writers of the seventeenth century realized this, and put it into to words extremely well. The seventeenth century was filled with religion, fighting, death, new governments, and it was no surprise that brilliant literature would emerge from such an era. The literature of the time would later be divided into three main categories or "schools." These three schools being the metaphysical school, cavalier school, and the extremely religious

Puritan school. Though each of these schools consist of very different styles of writing, they all attempt to warn their readers of Time's passing and its consequences. Whether the poems were read in the seventeenth century, today, or in another hundred years, the message is the same; Time is not something that stops for anyone or anything. It is an intangible reality in any man's life. The metaphysical school,containing authors such as John Donne and Andrew Marvel, seem to express to the reader that time moves quickly, while the Puritan group of writers, such as John Milton, seem to be slightly annoyed by Time's passing but accepts it and puts it in God's hands, and lastly the cavaliers, including Robert Herrick, write more about living life for today and living life like there is no tomorrow.

Andrew Marvel, a metaphysical writer, stated,"But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near,"(679). In this quote from "To His Coy Mistress," Marvel expresses Time as a chariot chasing him. Its inevitable arrival would signify death, but Marvel also spoke of Time's effects in one's beauty. Also in "To His Coy Mistress," he says,"Thy beauty shall no more be found,"(679). What Marvel was trying to say was that Time, or age, takes one's beauty with it; as it passes so does youth and all of its benefits. In general, Marvel's "To His Coy Mistress," warns the "mistress" and the reader to look out for Time, for it tends to creep up on people. He exclaims, "Had we but world enough, and time,"(679) he follows by telling his "mistress" they could sit together and decide "which way to walk." Yet he knows that they do not have the world and time to do everything they want, but they can at least squeeze in as much as they can in the time they have. Another metaphysical writer of the time was John Donne. One of Donne's pieces dealing with Time was "The Sun Rising,"(605). In this brilliantly constructed poem, he represents Time physically with the sun. He ellaborates on how its rising each day is a signal for Time's passing each day. When he states, "Hours, days, months, which are the rags of time,"(605) he uses hours, days, and months as measurements of Time and a somewhat physical representation of Time. Both of these writers brilliantly expressed Time and how it effects man.

Differing from the witty metaphysical metaphors and from the metaphysical views is John Milton and the Puritan school. Milton was an outstanding writer and an absolute genius. His most famous work being "Paradise Lost,"(722-849). In this he recreates the paradise of Eden and its two inhabitants, Adam and Eve, from their creation to their fortunate fall and sin. Though Time is never directly mentioned in the work, it can be interpreted. In the prelapsarian state of the garden of Eden, man is ruled by reason and there is no sin in the world, nor in Adam and Eve. However, once they both sin and we enter the postlapsarian state sin enters the world and carries death along with it. In this