Poems in Time: P. N. Singer on Carpe Diem

Poems in Time is a new outreach project by our fellow P. N. Singer, exploring how the experience of time – our fears, expectations, and ways of living with it – is pervasive in poetry from the ancient world to today. In this episode, he presents two poems by Horace (Odes 1.11 and 4.7) and considers their reflections on time. What does it mean to 'carpe diem' – to pluck the day? Horace urges us not to seek knowledge of the future but to embrace the present, an idea shaped by his Epicurean philosophy. Singer traces how similar themes of uncertainty, mortality, and living in the moment reappear in other traditions as well, from the Hebrew Bible to Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress. 

Script: Peter N. Singer

Camera and Direction: Cinzia Pappi 

Graphics and Editing: Calum Houston 

Hebrew Audio Excerpt: Ayelet Landau