Within 4 walls

1st April 2006

It's terrible, the signs are everywhere! Exhortations to marry and marry young, proclamations of the benefits of marriage, vigorous endorsements of the institution of marriage... And in all forms too: overt, subliminal, on TV, newspapers, radio... even poetry...Just read this poem by Robert Herrick, poet in the 17th centuary. Seems like this issue of marriage and singlehood is a theme that has transcended time. Here it goes:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow 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 wors, and worse
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.