The paper explores the development of English love poetry in the seventeenth century. Based on an analysis of three poems by Herrick, Marvell and Rochester, it will investigate how their respective renderings of the same theme (carpe diem) reveal a different conception of love and poetry, as well as a different view of the world. They all share as a common background the Petrarchan tradition of the Elizabethans, but deviate from it with an ironic attitude ranging from the trivial light- heartedness of Cavalier lyrics, to the dramatic intensity of the Metaphysics and, finally, the devastating cynicism of Restoration authors.