To Time
Lines:40Movement:Romanticism
Time! on whose arbitrary wing The varying hours must flag or fly,Whose tardy winter, fleeting spring, But drag or drive us on to die--Hail thou! who on my birth bestowed Those boons to all that know thee known;Yet better I sustain thy load, For now I bear the weight alone.I would not one fond heart should share The bitter moments thou hast given;And pardon thee--since thou couldst spare All that I loved, to peace or Heaven.To them be joy or rest--on me Thy future ills shall press in vain;I nothing owe but years to thee, A debt already paid in pain.Yet even that pain was some relief; It felt, but still forgot thy power:The active agony of grief Retards, but never counts the hour.In joy I've sighed to think thy flight Would soon subside from swift to slow;Thy cloud could overcast the light, But could not add a night to Woe;For then, however drear and dark, My soul was suited to thy sky;One star alone shot forth a spark To prove thee--not Eternity.That beam hath sunk--and now thou art A blank--a thing to count and curseThrough each dull tedious trifling part, Which all regret, yet all rehearse.One scene even thou canst not deform-- The limit of thy sloth or speedWhen future wanderers bear the storm Which we shall sleep too sound to heed.And I can smile to think how weak Thine efforts shortly shall be shown,When all the vengeance thou canst wreak Must fall upon--a nameless stone.