'Le temps s'en va, le temps s'en va, ma dame! Las! le temps non: mais NOUS nous en allons!' TIME goes, you say? Ah no! Alas, Time stays, we go; Or else, were this not so, What need to chain the hours, For Youth were always ours? Time goes, you say? -- ah no! Ours is the eyes' deceit Of men whose flying feet Lead through some landscape low; We pass, and think we see The earth's fixed surface flee: -- Alas, Time stays, -- we go! Once in the days of old, Your locks were curling gold, And mine had shamed the crow. Now, in the self-same stage, We've reached the silver age; Time goes, you say? -- ah no! Once, when my voice was strong, I filled the woods with song To praise your 'rose' and 'snow'; My bird, that sang, is dead; Where are your roses fled? Alas, Time stays, -- we go! See, in what traversed ways, What backward Fate delays The hopes we used to know; Where are our old desires? -- Ah, where those vanished fires? Time goes, you say? -- ah no! How far, how far, O Sweet, The past behind our feet Lies in the even-glow! Now, on the forward way, Let us fold hands, and pray; Alas, Time stays, -- we go! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PHOSPHORESCENT MAN by KAREN SWENSON MY YOUTH by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE LISTENERS by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: APRIL by EDMUND SPENSER IDYLLS OF THE KING: GERAINT AND ENID by ALFRED TENNYSON THE ABBOT OF INISFALEN by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 50. MY LOVE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |