To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
1 Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
2 !!!Old Time is still a-flying;
3 And this same flower that smiles today,
4 !!!Tomorrow will be dying.
5 The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
6 !!!The higher he’s a-getting;
7 The sooner will his race be run,
8 !!!And nearer he’s to setting.
9 That age is best which is the first,
10 !!!When youth and blood are warmer;
11 But being spent, the worse, and worst
12 !!!Times still succeed the former.
13 Then be not coy, but use your time,
14 !!!And while ye may, go marry;
15 For having lost but once your prime,
16 !!!You may for ever tarry.
To His Coy Mistress
Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)
1 Had we but world enough, and time,
2 This coyness, lady, were no crime.
3 We would sit down and think which way
4 To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
5 Thou by the Indian Ganges’º side Ganges River
6 Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
7 Of Humber1 would complain. I would
8 Love you ten years before the Flood;
9 And you should, if you please, refuse
10 Till the conversion of the Jews.2
11 My vegetable3 love should grow
12 Vaster than empires, and more slow;
– 1 –
1 The Humber River which flows through Marvell’s home town Hull, thus on the far
side of the world from the Ganges.
2 Tradition held that all the Jews would convert to Christianity just before the end of
the world.
3 The vegetable soul was characterized only by growth, in contrast to the sensitive,
which could feel, and the rational, which could think and reason.
