To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

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File:Waterhouse-gather ye rosebuds-1909.jpg
Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, by John William Waterhouse

"To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" is a 1648 poem by the English Cavalier poet Robert Herrick. The poem is in the genre of carpe diem, Latin for "seize the day".

1648 text

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Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may,
    Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to day,
    To morrow will be dying.

The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,
    The higher he's a getting;
The sooner will his Race be run,
    And Template:Langx 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.[1]

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Theme

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File:The Book of old English songs and ballads - 25 Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old Time is still a-flying.jpg
Illustration by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

First published as number 208 in the verse collection Hesperides (1648), the poem extols the notion of carpe diem, a philosophy that recognizes the brevity of life and the need to live for and in the moment. The phrase originates in Horace's Ode 1.11.

See also

References

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  1. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Reprint of the first edition (1648) of Hesperides

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External links

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