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Friday poem
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“On Time” by John Milton
Fly envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace;
And glut thy self with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more then what is false and vain,
And meerly mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d,
And last of all, thy greedy self consum’d,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss;
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine
About the supreme Throne
Of him, t’whose happy-making sight alone,
When once our heav’nly-guided soul shall clime,
Then all this Earthy grosnes quit,
Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.
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I like it! Especially the image of Time glutted with worthless things, rather like Error in the Faerie Queen or Sin and Death themselves in Paradise Lost.
This one was new to me, by the way ….
New to me, as well — is this an early one? The varying line length is especially fun.
I’ve always liked Milton, too. Thanks
It reminds me of some of Shakespeare’s sonnets that deal with the passage of time and the aging of people. It is superior, however, because it includes the spiritual dimension.
Kyle, It reminded me of Shakespeare’s:
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in it’s steady pace,from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
Till all our yesterdays have lead (?) fools
The way to dusty death.
Out!, Out! brief candle!
Tis a tale, told by an idiot
Full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
That’s the way I remember it. I don’t even remember which play it’s from.
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine
About the supreme Throne…
Then all this Earthy grosnes quit,
Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.
Amen! Thank you for this beautiful selection!
Chas: MacBeth.