HERRICK'S HESPERIDES.
There can be few among your subscribers who are unacquainted with the sweet lyric effusion of Herrick "to the Virgins, to make much of Time," beginning—
"Gather you 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 following "Answer" appeared in a publication not so well known as the Hesperides. I have therefore made a note of it from Cantos, Songs, and Stanzas, &c., 3rd ed. printed in Aberdeen, by John Forbes, 1682.
"I gather, where I hope to gain,
I know swift Time doth fly;
Those fading buds methinks are vain,
To-morrow that may die.
"The higher Phoebus goes on high,
The lower is his fall;
But length of days gives me more light,
Freedom to know my thrall.
"Then why do ye think I lose my time,
Because I do not marrie;
Vain fantasies make not my prime,
Nor can make me miscarrie."
J.M. GUTCH.
Worcester.