Had we but world enough, and time.
But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.
Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime.
Self-preservation, nature’s first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.
How vainly men themselves amaze To win the palm, the oak, or bays; And their uncessant labours see Crown’d from some single herb or tree. Whose short and narrow verged shade Does prudently their toils upbraid; While all flow’rs and all trees do close To weave the garlands of repose.
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 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.
As lines, so loves oblique, may well Themselves in every angle greet; But ours, so truly parallel, Though infinite, can never meet.
I have a garden of my own, But so with roses overgrown, And lilies, that you would it guess To be a little wilderness.
Among the blind the one-eyed blinkard reigns.