Oh sacred @3Time@1! how soon thou'rt gone! How swift thy circling Minutes run! Oh @3Time@1! our chiefest worldly Good, If we emply @3Thee@1 as we shou'd! And yet how few thy Value know, But think thee troublesome and slow! (motion and Rest fill up our Time, And little, Oh my @3Soul@1, is thine!) We @3eat@1, we @3drink@1, we @3sleep@1, and then We rise -- to do the same again: And thus like @3Fairies@1 daily tread, The same dull Round our Predecessors led. Young @3Lydia@1 prudent was and fair, Was all that virtuous Women are; And yet how soon her Glass was run, How short her fatal Thread was spun! How know we our appointed @3Fate@1, Whether ordain'd us soon or late? @3Health@1 is uncertain, @3Death@1 is more; And much we have to do before. Ah then, my @3Friend@1, let us be wise; No more the precious Gift despise; But use it for the End 'twas giv'n, And prove we're @3candidates@1 of Heaven. Let others to the Play repair, Be courted and reputed fair: Whole Winter-Nights at @3Ombre@1 play To pass the Drug of Time away. While we our better Parts employ, And placidly our Souls enjoy: Praising that @3Pow'r@1 did us create; But more the @3Love@1 redeem'd our Fate. Then with th' illustrious @3Dead@1 converse, And sometimes with a Friend in @3Verse@1. Thus in the Culture of the Mind, Improve those Hours by Fate assign'd: So shall we from superfluous Time be free: 'Tis Want of Sense makes @3Superfluity@1. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: WASHINGTON MCNEELY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CONTRA MORTEM: THE BEING AS MEMORY by HAYDEN CARRUTH SPECIAL EFFECTS by JAMES GALVIN THE PASSING OF THE EX-SLAVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON |