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The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics/Book 1/Poem 26

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For other versions of this work, see O Mistress Mine.
2705570The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics — Poem XXVI. Carpe DiemFrancis Turner PalgraveWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616)

xxvi

CARPE DIEM

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear! your true-love’s coming
That can sing both high and low;
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journeys end in lovers’ meeting—
Every wise man’s son doth know.

What is love? ’tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty,—
Then come kiss me, Sweet-and-twenty,
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
W. Shakespeare