Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

FAIR daffodils we weep to see

You haste away so soon;

As yet the early-rising sun

Has not attain’d his noon.

Stay, stay

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the evensong;

And, having prayed together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,

We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,

As you, or any thing.

We die

As your hours do, and dry

Away,

Like to the summer’s rain;

Or as the pearls of morning’s dew,

Ne’er to be found again.