Virginity in 17th and 18th Century Poetry Essay examples

Virginity in 17th and 18th Century Poetry Essay examples

Virginity in 17th and 18th Century Poetry



Benjamin Franklin once said that there were only two inevitable things in life: death and taxes. He got it half right. They did, in fact, die with pretty regular certainty. However, what was inevitable was sex. Without it, there wouldn't be any new people to die and poor Ben Franklin would have been completely wrong. The only hindrance to this certainty was (and remains) virgins. The realm of the chaste has been explored in poetry throughout time, but never was the subject as thoroughly probed as in the 17th and 18th century. To judge by the poets of the time, one would conclude that––next to dying––the citizens of this era spent most of their time either praising the virtuous, trying to ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Again, the virtue itself is not exactly being praised so much as being alluded to as a component of something good.



The women also had their say. In Katherine Phillips's "A Married State"(1679), the many advantages of a life of chastity are listed. Phillips says "A virgin's state is crowned with much content; / It's always happy as it's innocent." In addition to innocence, Phillips points out that there are no grouchy husbands, no screaming children and nothing else to distract you from your service to God. In fact, wistful women wishing they'd kept their virginity and wedding vows to themselves wrote many poems in this era. It is a telling social commentary that so many married women would wish themselves back to live a life of chaste penitence than to enter into so–called "wedded bliss."



The most common theme in virginity poems is that of men trying to get women to change their minds and go to bed with them. Many poets tried to use persuasion on their objects of desire. In Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time," the well–known first line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" appears. This poem is an appeal to virtuous women to use it while they've got it, per se. In the proud tradition of soldiers who will be sent off tomorrow who just know they aren't coming back and hedonists everywhere, Herrick emphasizes that time is short and virgins are wasting their youths

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