Andrew Marvell

“But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near.”

“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 all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

“But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near”

“But Fate does iron wedges drive,And always crowds itself betwixt.”

“Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

“The grave's a fine and private place,But none, I think, do there embrace.”

“Gather the flowers, but spare the buds.”

“Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime.”

“Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpiresAt 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-chapt power.”

“Thus, though we cannot make our sunStand still, yet we will make him run.”

“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.”

“My love is of a birth as rareAs 'tis, for object, strange and high;It was begotten by DespairUpon Impossibility.”

“Had we but world enough, and time”

“My vegetable love will growVaster than empires, and more slow.”

“Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.”

“To wander solitary there:Two paradises ‘twere in oneTo live in paradise alone.”

“As lines, so loves oblique may well Themselves in every angle greet; But ours so truly parallel, Though infinite, can never meet. Therefore the love which us doth bind, But Fate so enviously debars, Is the conjunction of the mind, And opposition of the stars.”