carpe diem poetry of the period was an oppositional gesture against militant Millenarianism, the thematic opposition being the happy present vs. the blissful reign of Christ that would follow on the destruction of the Beast (the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church or King Charles I), for which the Army fought in the 1640’s. Marvell's urge for skipping over the present to the future by procreation thus constitutes a paradox that contains both orientations, libertine paganism and radical Protestantism. "To His Coy Mistress" is an exceptional carpe diem poem. Content is hosted by All Academic Inc, a leading provider of online hosting and software solutions for academic conferences supporting submission, peer review, scheduling, invitaions, volunteers, scheduling, web-based programs, advanced bulk email, custom workflows, and more for conferences of scholarly societies since 1999." />
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Carpe Diem for the Millenarians: Rereading "To His Coy Mistress"

Fri, March 31, 5:30 to 7:00pm, Palmer House Hilton, Floor: Seventh Floor, Montrose 3

Abstract

The carpe diem trope has scarcely been given a serious scholarly attention. We often mention it without considering its sources other than Horace (Ronsard and the Anacreontea, for instance) and the reasons for its prevalence in mid-seventeenth-century poetry. That is why the real significance of Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" has escaped us. In this paper I will argue that the carpe diem poetry of the period was an oppositional gesture against militant Millenarianism, the thematic opposition being the happy present vs. the blissful reign of Christ that would follow on the destruction of the Beast (the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church or King Charles I), for which the Army fought in the 1640’s. Marvell's urge for skipping over the present to the future by procreation thus constitutes a paradox that contains both orientations, libertine paganism and radical Protestantism. "To His Coy Mistress" is an exceptional carpe diem poem.

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