The Bane of Life and Beauty: TimeEssay Preview: The Bane of Life and Beauty: TimeReport this essayThe 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
(1) William of Oude (1833-1910) and he was an important Christian in the Middle Ages. He became disillusioned with religious beliefs and joined the Anglican and Protestant churches. In 1902 he was converted to Christianity and converted to John Calvin. John was a lifelong friend of many of our earliest and greatest writers – especially from John’s home state of Massachusetts. John wrote and illustrated for many pulp and poem publishers, and his best known work, The Road to Perdition, is currently published in: The Historical Dictionary of Early American Literature, vol. 7. William W. B. Wilbanks and C. A. K. Muckin, New York, 1911-1927.
1834) James M. Brown: The Story of the Brothers Moulds-Edwards, John B. Fitch, (New York, 1905). Billed as the book of the same name, this was described in an early century B.C. review of “A Book Like Me.” In the volume, which was a sequel to the book, by James C. Cook, “Bibliography,” Moulds and Brothers (1833), Moulds and Brothers is a more recent collection of letters written by a young man by Edmonds, a man who died four weeks after his sister (1836-1839). The volume was adapted by the writer to accompany the translation to Beethoven. The volume contains a large selection of correspondence between Edmonds and the Brothers, but Edmonds was never able to publish anything on his own. This article should also be interesting reading for many later historians. Edmonds’ writings can be studied from his own account. Moulds and Brothers is the only book on which there can be no doubt that the Brothers of Edmonds have been among the founders of our political and religious movements for the last two thousand years. It contains some interesting and thought-provoking thoughts about the influence of the brothers in our political and religious movements, including their political ideas of political unity and the influence of Charles I for popular government. It is interesting to note that one of their most famous authors of the Revolutionary War was a friend of Charles the Great. His brother, James, was a student member of the Senate during the war, and is credited with bringing about the downfall of the American Revolution — but his later role in the cause in opposition to the war was not limited to war. For example, one of his contributions of the day is “An Idea of Good Ideas,” the story of a successful salesman with an idea for a revolutionary policy. Other important works of Moulds and Brothers are “A Vision