Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WORTH OF HOURS, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WORTH OF HOURS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Believe not that your inner eye
Last Line: Far better than a barren joy.
Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord
Subject(s): Time


BELIEVE not that your inner eye
Can ever in just measure try
The worth of Hours as they go by:

For every man's weak self, alas!
Makes him to see them, while they pass,
As through a dim or tinted glass:

But if in earnest care you would
Mete out to each its part of good,
Trust rather to your after-mood.

Those surely are not fairly spent,
That leave your spirit bowed and bent
In sad unrest and ill-content:

And more, -- though free from seeming harm,
You rest from toil of mind or arm,
Or slow retire from Pleasure's charm, --

If then a painful sense comes on
Of something wholly lost and gone,
Vainly enjoyed, or vainly done, --

Of something from your being's chain
Broke off, nor to be linked again
By all mere Memory can retain, --

Upon your heart this truth may rise, --
Nothing that altogether dies
Suffices man's just destinies:

So should we live, that every Hour
May die as dies the natural flower, --
A self-reviving thing of power;

That every Thought and every Deed
May hold within itself the seed
Of future good and future meed;

Esteeming Sorrow, whose employ
Is to develope not destroy,
Far better than a barren Joy.





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