To Daffodils / Robert Herrick

     
To Daffodils 

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 anything.
                 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.

~~
Robert Herrick
from Hesperides, 1648

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Robert Herrick biography

"To Daffodils" read by Ben W. Smith. Courtesy Ben Reads Poetry.