The Fly
The Fly
Original Text
The Oxford Book of Eighteenth Century Verse, ed. David Nichol Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926): 153. First published in The Scarborough Miscellany (London: J. Roberts, 1732). ESTC reel 770, no. 18 (Microfilm) Robarts Library
1BUSY, curious, thirsy Fly,
2Gently drink, and drink as I;
3Freely welcome to my Cup,
4Could’st thou sip, and sip it up;
5Make the most of Life you may,
6Life is short and wears away.
7Just alike, both mine and thine,
8Hasten quick to their Decline;
9Thine’s a Summer, mine’s no more,
10Though repeated to threescore;
11Threescore Summers when they’re gone,
12Will appear as short as one.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004