In lyric love poetry, the tradition sometimes becomes a bit of a game, as the lover tries to encourage the woman to enjoy love while they are young and beautiful.  We will be reading several versions of the carpe diem poem--including Donne's "The Flea" and "The Ecstasy," as well as Andrew Marvell's marvelous argument, "To His Coy Mistress."

Robert Herrick, a contemporary of John Donne, wrote the poem whose first line has become the carpe diem cliche:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
  Old Time is still a-Flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
  Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
  The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
  And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
  When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
  Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
  And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
  You may forever tarry.

But though some carpe diem poems make a fairly abstract and philosophical claim for seizing the day, others are much more specific--a genuine attempted seduction.

Donne's "The Flea" is an attempted seduction--and is particularly funny because it's pretty clearly a failed seduction attempt.  You will need to read the argument carefully; recognize that you have to imagine the poem as though it is one side of an actual seduction monologue.  Try to picture what the guy is arguing, and what response the girl makes in the space between each stanza.

For the classic carpe diem argument, see Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," and Sir Walter Ralegh's companion poem, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd." Donne made his own contribution to the supposed debate, called "The Bait" (click here).