Death plucks my ear and says “Live, for I am coming”.

The line comes from the closing of the Latin poem "Copa" ("Mors aurem vellens—Vivite, ait, venio"), a carpe-diem style invitation to enjoy wine, dice, and pleasure now rather than worrying about tomorrow or posthumous honors. The poem was long transmitted under Virgil’s name (via the grammarian Servius), but modern scholarship treats the attribution as doubtful. In 1931, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. popularized an English version by quoting it in a radio address and crediting it only to an unnamed Latin poet.

Death is imagined as physically tugging someone’s ear to get their attention, delivering a blunt reminder that life is short and uncertain. The message urges immediate, intentional living rather than postponing life’s value to the future.

Mors aurem vellens—Vivite, ait, venio.

Death plucks my ear, and says, “Live! for I come.”

Death pulls by the ear, and cries, “Live while you may; I approach…”

Here’s Death twitching my ear, “Live,” says he, “for I’m coming!”

Death tugs at my ear and says: “Live, I am coming.”