by William Oldys (1696 - 1761)
Busy, curious, thirsty Fly
Language: English
Busy, curious, thirsty Fly, Gently drink, and drink as I; Freely welcome to my Cup, Could'st thou sip, and sip it up; Make the most of Life you may, Life is short and wears away. Just alike, both mine and thine, Hasten quick to their Decline; Thine's a Summer, mine's no more, Though repeated to threescore; Threescore Summers when they're gone, Will appear as short as one.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with A Literary Antiquary. Memoir of William Oldys, Esq., London, Spottiswoode & Co., 1862, page xiii
Text Authorship:
- by William Oldys (1696 - 1761), "The Fly", subtitle: "An Anacreontick" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 - 2012), "The fly" [ chorus a cappella ], from The Insect World, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963), "On a fly drinking out of his cup", published 1944 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from Nine English Songs, no. 9 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger S. Keele (b. 1954), "The Summer Fly", 2009 [ high voice and piano ], from Six Seasonal Songs for High Voice and Piano, no. 3, Dowling Music [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 67