Carpe Diem
Age saw two quiet children
Go loving by at twilight
He knew not whether homeward
Or outward from the village
Or (chimes were ringing) churchward
He waited (they were strangers)
Till they were out of hearing
To bid them both be happy
"Be happy, happy, happy
And seize the day of pleasure."
The age-long theme is Age's
'Twas Age imposed on poems
Their gather-roses burden
To warn against the danger
That overtaken lovers
From being overflooded
With happiness should have it
And yet not know they have it
But bid life seize the present?
It lives less in the present
Than in the future always
And less in both together
Than in the past. The present
Is too much for the senses
Too crowding, too confusing—
Too present to imagine