Love and Life: A Song
Love and Life: A Song
Original Text
John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, Poems on Several Occasions. 1680, facs. edn. (Menston: Scolar Press, 1971). PR 3669 R2 1680AB ROBA.
1All my past life is mine no more,
2 The flying hours are gone,
3Like transitory dreams giv'n o'er,
4Whose images are kept in store
5 By memory alone.
6The time that is to come is not;
7 How can it then be mine?
8The present moment's all my lot;
9And that, as fast as it is got,
10 Phyllis, is only thine.
11Then talk not of inconstancy,
12 False hearts, and broken vows;
13If I, by miracle, can be
14This live-long minute true to thee,
15 'Tis all that Heav'n allows.
Publication Start Year
1680
RPO poem Editors
G. G. Falle
RPO Edition
3RP 2.58.
Rhyme