What is the name of a poem I'm looking for?

Question

The poem contained live the today to the fullest because it will never come back to you. It might be an inspirational poem.

Answer 1

In the English Renaissance the tradition of carpe diem (seize the day) was a familiar one in poetry. Here's one of my favorite of these poems:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry :
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.

The poem is entitled "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick, and lest you think it's too sassy, just remember that Herrick was a clergyman in the Church of England, vicar of the same chruch for 31 years--and umarried!

There are many famous poems using this motif. Perhaps the best-known of all is "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, a bit to long to quote in its entirety, but here are the two most often quoted passages:

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.

* * * * *
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

So seize the day! And make it a good one. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."