| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | To Lady Anne Hamilton | | By William Robert Spencer (1770–1834) |
| | | TOO late I stay’d! forgive the crime, | |
| Unheeded flew the hours. | |
| How noiseless falls the foot of Time, | |
| That only treads on flowers! | |
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| What eye with clear account remarks | 5 |
| The ebbing of his glass, | |
| When all its sands are diamond sparks, | |
| That dazzle as they pass? | |
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| Ah! who to sober measurement | |
| Time’s happy swiftness brings, | 10 |
| When birds of Paradise have lent | |
| Their plumage for his wings? | | | | |
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