C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Vincent Bourne (1695–1747)

BUSY, curious, thirsty fly,

Drink with me, and drink as I;

Freely welcome to my cup,

Coulds’t thou sip and sip it up.

Make the most of life you may:

Life is short, and wears away.

Both alike are mine and thine,

Hastening quick to their decline;

Thine’s a summer, mine no more,

Though repeated to threescore.

Threescore summers, when they’re gone,

Will appear as short as one.