William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
Love and LifeJohn Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (16471680)
A
The flying hours are gone,
Like transitory dreams given o’er,
Whose images are kept in store
By memory alone.
How can it then be mine?
The present moment’s all my lot;
And that, as fast as it is got,
Phillis, is only thine.
False hearts, and broken vows;
If I by miracle can be
This live-long minute true to thee,
’Tis all that Heaven allows.