| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| To My Tortoise Chronos |
| | | Eugene Lee-Hamilton (b. 1845) |
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| THOU vague dumb crawler with the groping head | |
| As listless to the sun as to the showers, | |
| Thou very image of the wingless Hours | |
| Now creeping past me with their feet of lead: | |
| For thee and me the same small garden bed | 5 |
| Is the whole world: the same half life is ours; | |
| And year by year, as Fate restricts my powers, | |
| I grow more like thee, and the soul grows dead. | |
| No, Tortoise: from thy like in days of old | |
| Was made the living lyre; and mighty strings | 10 |
| Spanned thy green shell with pure vibrating gold. | |
| The notes soared up, on strong but trembling wings, | |
| Through ether’s lower zones; then, growing bold, | |
| Spurned earth for ever and its wingless things. | |
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