Is the poem, "To Daffodils," by Robert Herrick, a Cavalier poem? Explain.

Robert Herrick's poem entitled, "To Daffodils," is a
Cavalier poem. Cavalier poems are known for their "carpe diem" (seize the day) theme:
making the most of the time we have because it flies by so
quickly.

In "To Daffodils," the speaker is praising the
beautiful flowers, but also speaking as to how quickly they fade. Herrick's description
of the life of daffodils, in his poem, parallels the brief life of
man.

The first stanza relates the sadness that comes with
the swift passage of the daffodils of spring: they arrive in all their glory, but seem
to die too soon and return to the earth. The speaker talks of the time of day, which is
also symbolic of the stages of life. He says:

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As yet the early-rising sun
Has not
attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has
run
But to the
even-song...

"Early-rising
sun" is youth; noon is middle age. The speaker finishes the stanza by saying that when
"we" have prayed with the daffodils, "we will go with you
along."

The second stanza provides the "extended metaphor"
to the descriptions provided in the first stanza. The speaker verbalizes the swiftness
of man's time on the earth:

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We have short time to stay, as you,
We
have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or
anything.
We die
As your hours do, and
dry
Away...

The
speaker points out that, like the daffodils, humans have a short spring (youth); and
like dead plants, we decay as quickly as plants, to rejoin the soil. Plants, like
people, lose the hours to eventual death—just like the
daffodils.

Finally, the speaker points out with a simile,
that human life is like a summer rain or the "pearls" of dew: in the blink of an eye,
both are gone—forever.

In
summary:

The
over-riding message of Herrick’s work is that life is short, the world is beautiful,
love is splendid, and we must use the short time we have to make the most of
it.