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.