Fair
Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste
away so soon;
As yet the
early-rising sun
Has not
attain'd his noon.
Stay,
stay,
Until the
hasting day
Has run
But to the
even-song;
And,
having pray'd together, we
Will go
with you along.
We have
short time to stay, as you,
We have as
short a spring;
As quick a
growth to meet decay,
As you, or
anything.
We die
As your
hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to
the summer's rain;
Or as the
pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to
be found again.
Summary: In this poem, ‘To Daffodil’, the poet
Robert Herrick compares human life with the life of daffodils. He is so sad
because the life of daffodil is very short. He has struck a note of mourning at
the fast dying of daffodils. The poet asks the daffodils to stay until the day
ends with the evening prayer. After praying together he wants to go with them
because like the daffodils, men also have a very transient life. Men have short spring or youth which ends up very quickly. Their life is
as short as the rain of the summer season which comes for a very short time and
the dew-drops in the morning which vanish away and never come back.
