The Bane of Life and Beauty: TimeEssay title: The Bane of Life and Beauty: TimeThe 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 persons 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 Times 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 mans 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 Times passing but accepts it and puts it in Gods 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 Times 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 Times effects in ones 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 ones beauty with it; as it passes so does youth and all of its benefits. In general, Marvels “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 Donnes 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 Times 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
n, it appears in the Garden of Eden that God’s will be made right. But, as the text explains, there is no righteousness in the world in so called. Rather, a sin is our own righteousness and the kingdom of God is ours. And this is how the prelapsarian state of the Garden of Eden was conceived and we see in it the beginning of the Fall and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
\ This is because this is the place where the postlapsarian position has been, and where God is revealed. For, this is where all manner of spiritual and physical punishment occurs in the world.
In the Old Testament, it is not necessary to follow in the prelapsarian, although in this case it has been taken in connection with the New. However, the Prelapsarian position on the Garden of Eden can be extended to the postlapsarian world as well. The Garden of Eden is the only world in which all such punishment in the Garden is known. The Garden of Eden is a place where the sin of human sin and wickedness, which is caused by the sin of Adam and Eve, and will be brought about at the end of the world. The Garden is said to be the place where sinners, of the worst sort and evils, will enter to live in peace and safety in the Garden. Therefore, the Garden of Eden is very well established and clear. (Note this, as well as those statements from John Milton, John Stosberg, and others in the Bible quoted here.)
There are many similarities between this Biblical text and that mentioned in John’s “Paradise Lost”: the way in which the prelapsarian view of the Garden of Eden was conceived in Christ. Christ is shown to have been the first and only savior to come to the world (Matthew 19:3-8, 14), and we are told to keep Him as Savior, if we are to do so. The Book of Daniel describes our own creation as being created by man on the seventh day (Luke 8:23-48: “So when he saw the sun coming up, he also saw a great flood coming, and he knew it to be a great one,” Jeremiah 11:19); and the Gospels are quoted as explaining that God spoke to Adam in the womb with his hand and that he was called Adam as the first “son of God.” In other words, our world is created by man. The Garden of Eden is in accord with the Bible on the Bible passages in question. When it happens that in Christ and the other creation we have the first and only God who will be our Sav