TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME by Robert Herrick: Full Text of the Poem

TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME

by Robert Herrick

Renaissance · Medium · 16 linesnaturetime

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 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 for ever tarry.

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Public domain. Source: PoetryDB. Reproduced verbatim; see theanthology for the full collection.

Poems like TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME

Matched by documented rules, not taste: two points for every theme tag a poem shares with TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME, one point for the same era, one for a similar length.

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