Carpe diem

This article is about the Latin phrase. For the webcomic of the same name, see Carpe Diem (comic).

Related Topics:
Webcomic - Carpe Diem (comic)

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Carpe diem is Latin for "pluck the day," meaning "enjoy the moment". It is also a term often used in the Navy as an expression of goodwill. Although the classical meaning of the Latin verb "carpere" is "to pluck," the phrase is metaphorically translated into English to mean "seize the day." This rule of life is found in the "Odes" (I, 11.8) of the Roman poet Horace (65 - 8 BC), where it reads:

Related Topics:
Latin - Navy - Horace

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:Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero

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:(pluck the day, never trust the next)

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It is quoted accordingly either as a demand not to waste somebody's time with useless things, or as a justification for pleasure and joy of life with little fear for the future.

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This idea was popular in 16th and 17th-century English poetry, for example in Robert Herrick's To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, which begins "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may". http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herrick/tovirgins.htm It is interesting to note that the following Chinese couplet attributed to a certain poetess in Tang Dynasty, which have entered the realm of proverbs, strikingly resemble Herrick's line:

Related Topics:
Robert Herrick - Chinese - Tang Dynasty

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:(pluck the flower when it has blossomed; don't wait until there's no flowers with only branches to break.)

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Another of Herrick's poems, His Age http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herrick/hisage.htm includes the lines:

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:Ah Posthumus! Our years hence fly,

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:And leave no sound; nor piety,

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:Or prayers, or vow

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:Can keep the wrinkle from the brow -

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And:

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:A merry mind

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:Looks forward, scorns what's left behind;

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:Let's live, my Wickes, then, while we may

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:An here enjoy our holiday.

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This theme is also recalled in the verses of English Victorian poet Tennyson, and in Andrew Marvell's famous To His Coy Mistress.

Related Topics:
Tennyson - Andrew Marvell - To His Coy Mistress

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A song in William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night has been referred to as "Carpe Diem", although the phrase itself is not mentioned in it:

Related Topics:
William Shakespeare - Twelfth Night

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:O MISTRESS mine, where are you roaming?

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:O stay and hear! your true-love's coming

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:: That can sing both high and low;

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:Trip no further, pretty sweeting,

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:Journeys end in lovers meeting -

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:: Every wise man's son doth know.

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:What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

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:Present mirth hath present laughter;

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:: What's to come is still unsure:

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:In delay there lies no plenty, -

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:Then come kiss me, Sweet-and-twenty,

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:: Youth's a stuff will not endure.

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Robin Williams' character as a teacher of a boys' boarding school in the film Dead Poets Society uses it:

Related Topics:
Robin Williams - Dead Poets Society

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:But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - Carpe - hear it? - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

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The title of a Terry Pratchett novel is Carpe Jugulum, (Pluck the neck) meaning "Go for the throat." Another alternative, more light-hearted version common on T-shirts is carpe scrotum (pluck the scrotum), juxtaposed with the free translation "seize life by the balls".

Related Topics:
Terry Pratchett - Carpe Jugulum - Scrotum

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Metallica's 1997 release Reload also features a song entitled "Carpe Diem Baby", which encourages the listener to "come squeeze and suck the day / Come Carpe Diem Baby." Progressive metal group Dream Theater's A Change of Seasons EP features the 23-minute long title track, telling the story of a man whose birth, life and death are juxtaposed with the changing of seasons in a single year. The song carries a very strong theme of "seizing the day" and making every moment meaningful. Soundbites from Dead Poets Society and Robert Herrick's poem mentioned earlier in this article are featured in the song.

Related Topics:
Metallica - Reload - Progressive metal - Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons - EP - Dead Poets Society - Robert Herrick

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The phase is often used to exhort people to make the most of their time with the implication that they will benefit in the future, whereas it is more intended to suggest that people should do what they want today and ignore the future consequences.

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