What are the themes of To Daffodils?

 What are the themes of To Daffodils

Theme is the main thing that a poem presents in its content. Every time a poet writes a poem, he has an intention to express it in his poem. That is called the theme of his poem. The main theme of the poem To Daffodils is time and death. This theme is presented by a symbol of daffodils. Let’s discuss the theme of To Daffodils by Robert Herrick.

Theme refers to the central or dominating idea, “the message” implicit in a work. It is an abstract concept indirectly expressed through recurrent images, actions, characters and symbols and must be inferred by the reader. Theme differs from the topic in a work in that the theme is a comment, observation, or insight about the subject. The central ideas the famous poet Robert Herrick tries to convey in his poem `To Daffodils” are the fleeting nature of time, the short existence of humans and all living beings and the transient nature of beauty. 

In his poem ‘To Daffodils’, Robert Herrick has used many similes in order to convey his ideas. He has compared the daffodils with the human beings. He says in this poem, ‘We have short time to stay, as you’. He wants to reveal the idea that like the short life of the daffodils, human beings also have a short span of time on earth. He has also made a comparison between the spring and the human beings; he says, “We have as short as spring”. 

Here the poet has compared the youth period of human life with that of the spring season; it is the most pleasurable season but it only remains for a short span of time. The daffodils are flowers of the spring season which lasts for a very brief time and they quickly perish. Likewise youth is the spring of human life, it passes away very soon and death takes human beings. 

The idea the poet wants to reveal here is that beauty is transient and there is an end to all the beautiful things. Further he says that both of them grow very fast to be destroyed fast. Just like the short duration of the flowers, men too die soon. The poet further says that human life is as short as “the summer’s rain” and “as the pearls of morning’s dew” which vanish away and never return again. 

The poet has compared the lifespan of the “Fair daffodils”, “summer’s rain” and “pearls of morning’s dew” with that of human beings. Through these images the poet wants to reveal the idea that the daffodils, summer’s rain and pearls of morning’s dew have short existence and human beings are also short-lived. The images “Fair daffodils” and “pearls of morning’s dew” also create an idea of beauty that is not eternal, something that is to be ruined. The poet wants to express the thought that life is short and beauty is transient. 

The poet has symbolically revealed the idea that time is running out and all the living beings are short-lived by comparing the short lifespan of human beings with the short existence of the “Fair daffodils”. In the line “We have as short a spring”, the ‘spring’ symbolises the youth period of human life. The poet has used an image “hasting day” concerning the movement and time; here ‘day’ becomes a symbol for life time; it is life that tastes away. Here the poet has indicated the fleeting nature of time and the fact that human life is hasting towards death.

Conclusion

There are a number of themes in the poem. But the main theme of this poem is time and death of human beings. That was all about the themes of the poem To Daffodils. There are a number of more articles on our website on this poem. You may read the questions and answers of this poem and also the critical appreciation of this poem from our website. There are a number of articles on Robert Herrick.