Busy, curious, thirsty Fly,
[Gently drink, and]1 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]2 mine and thine,
[Hasten]3 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.

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Confirmed with A Literary Antiquary. Memoir of William Oldys, Esq., London, Spottiswoode & Co., 1862, page xiii

¹ Bennett, Hindemith: "Drink with me and"
² Hindemith: "Both alike are"
³ Hindemith: "Hastening"

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: 70