My favourite poem...

is this one.

To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell

Had we but world enough, and time

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our our long love's day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges' side

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love would grow

Vaster than empires, and more slow;

An hundred years would go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For lady, you deserve this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear

Time's winged chariot hurrying near:

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

Thy beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble vaults, shall sound

My echoing song; then worms shall try

That long preserved virginity.

And your quaint honour turned to dust,

And into ashes all my lust.

The grave's a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

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 all our strength, and all

Our sweetness, up into one ball,

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Through the iron gates of life:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

because...

- if I'm feeling overwhelmed (or cynical...) I like that people have always always tried to sweet talk others into bed. The details of the world might change, but the important bits tend to stay the same;

- if I'm feeling romantic, the descriptions of how he wants to love and adore her for the rest of time are delicious;

- however I feel, being reminded to seize the day is always welcome. The last two lines are my favourite... we can't stop time, but we can make sure we get the very best out of it.

Relevant pages from my sketchbook:

Carpe diem, boys and girls.