| Herbert J.C. Grierson, ed. (1886–1960). Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the 17th C. 1921. |
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| George Herbert |
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| 90. Life |
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| I MADE a posie, while the day ran by: | |
| Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie | |
| My life within this band. | |
| But time did becken to the flowers, and they | |
| By noon most cunningly did steal away, | 5 |
| And wither'd in my hand. | |
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| My hand was next to them, and then my heart: | |
| I took, without more thinking, in good part | |
| Times gentle admonition: | |
| Who did so sweetly deaths sad taste convey, | 10 |
| Making my minde to smell my fatall day; | |
| Yet sugring the suspicion. | |
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| Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent, | |
| Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament, | |
| And after death for cures. | 15 |
| I follow straight without complaints or grief, | |
| Since if my sent be good, I care not, if | |
| It be as short as yours. | |
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