Andrew Marvell
But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near.
Gather the flowers, but spare the buds.
Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime.
Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.
Art indeed is long, but life is short.Collection: Art
The world in all doth but two nations bear- The good, the bad; and these mixed everywhere.Collection: Two Nations
How vainly men themselves amaze To win the palm, the oak, or bays; And their uncessant labours see Crown'd from some single herb or tree. Whose short and narrow verged shade Does prudently their toils upbraid; While all flow'rs and all trees do close To weave the garlands of repose.Collection: Winning
Music, the mosaic of the air.Collection: Music
Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him runCollection: Running
Among the blind the one-eyed blinkard reignsCollection: Reign
I have a garden of my own, But so with roses overgrown, And lilies, that you would it guess To be a little wilderness.Collection: Flower
But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try That long preserv'd virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust. The grave's a fine and private place, But none I think do there embrace.Collection: Song
Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball: And tear our pleasures with rough strife, Through the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.Collection: Running
Annihilating all that's made, To a green thought in a green shade.Collection: Tree
As lines, so loves oblique, may well Themselves in every angle greet; But ours, so truly parallel, Though infinite, can never meet.Collection: Love
Casting the body's vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide.Collection: Soul
So much one man can do that does both act and know.Collection: Men
My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow.Collection: Vegetables
He nothing common did, or mean, / Upon that memorable scene, / But with his keener eye / The axe's edge did try.Collection: Eye
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, Withdraws into its happiness; The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas; Annihilating all that's made To a green thought in a green glade ... Such was that happy garden-state.Collection: Happiness
Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness Lady were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love's day. Thou by the Indian Ganges'side Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood.Collection: Time
And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.Collection: Time
No white nor red was ever seen So am'rous as this lovely green. Fond lovers, cruel as their flame, Cut in these trees their mistress' name. Little, alas, they know or heed How far these beauties hers exceed! Fair trees! where s'e'er your barks I wound, No name shall but your own be found.Collection: Cutting
What wondrous life is this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head.Collection: Food
How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned, but in herbs and flowers?Collection: Sweet
Though I carry always some ill-nature about me, yet it is, I hope, no more than is in this world necessary for a preservative.Collection: World
My love is of a birth as rare As 'tis, for object, strange and high; It was begotten by Despair Upon Impossibility.Collection: Love
My mind was once the true survey Of all these meadows fresh and gay; And in the greenness of the grass Did see its hopes as in a glass.Collection: Gay
And now, when I have summed up all my store, Thinking (so I myself deceive) So rich a chaplet thence to weave As never yet the King of Glory wore, Alas! I find the serpent old, That, twining in his speckled breast, About the flowers disguised does fold With wreaths of fame and interest.Collection: Kings
Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, while we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.Collection: Sports
See how the Orient dew, Shed from the bosom of the morn Into the blowing roses, Yet careless of its mansion new; For the clear region where 'twas born Round in its self encloses: And in its little globes extent, Frames as it can its native element.Collection: Self
How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the palm, the oak, or bays; / And their incessant labours see / Crowned from some single herb or tree.Collection: Winning
This indigested vomit of the Sea,Fell to the Dutch by Just Propriety.Collection: Sea
How fit he is to sway That can so well obey.Collection: Fit
Now let us sport us while we may; And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour, Than languish in his slow-chapped power.Collection: Sports
Ye country comets, that portend No war, nor prince's funeral, Shining unto no higher end Than to presage the grasses fall. . . .Collection: Country
And all the way, to guide their chime, With falling oars they kept their time.Collection: Fall
Twas beyond a mortal's share To wander solitary there: Two paradises 'twere in one To live in paradise alone.Collection: Two
Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.Collection: Carpe Diem