| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | To Time | | By A. W. |
| | | ETERNAL Time, that wasteth without waste! | |
| That art, and art not! diest, and livest still; | |
| Most slow of all; and yet of greatest haste; | |
| Both ill and good; and neither good, nor ill; | |
| How can I justly praise thee, or dispraise: | 5 |
| Dark are thy nights, but bright and clear thy days! | |
| |
| Both free and scarce, thou giv’st and tak’st again; | |
| Thy womb, that all doth breed, is tomb to all; | |
| Whatso by thee hath life, by thee is slain; | |
| From thee, do all things rise: by thee they fall! | 10 |
| Constant, inconstant, moving, standing still; | |
| Was, Is, Shall Be, do thee both breed and kill! | |
| |
| I lose thee, while I seek to find thee out; | |
| The farther off, the more I follow thee; | |
| The faster hold, the greater cause of doubt. | 15 |
| Was, Is, I know: but Shall, I cannot see. | |
| All things by thee are measured; thou, by none: | |
All are in thee. Thou, in thyself alone!
THE END. | | | | |
|
|
