Annihilating all that's made, To a green thought in a green shade.

Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.

Though I carry always some ill-nature about me, yet it is, I hope, no more than is in this world necessary for a preservative.

Casting the body's vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide.

As lines, so loves oblique, may well Themselves in every angle greet; But ours, so truly parallel, Though infinite, can never meet.

How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the palm, the oak, or bays; / And their incessant labours see / Crowned from some single herb or tree.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, while we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.