John Milton. (1608–1674). Complete Poems.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
| |
| On Time |
| |
| (1633–34) |
| |
| |
| FLY, envious Time, till thou run out thy race: | |
| Call on the lazy leaden-stepping Hours, | |
| Whose speed is but the heavy plummet’s pace; | |
| And glut thyself with what thy womb devours, | |
| Which is no more than what is false and vain, | 5 |
| And merely mortal dross; | |
| So little is our loss, | |
| So little is thy gain! | |
| For, whenas each thing bad thou hast entombed, | |
| And, last of all, thy greedy Self consumed, | 10 |
| Then long eternity shall greet our bliss | |
| With an individual kiss, | |
| And joy shall undertake us as a flood; | |
| When everything that is sincerely good | |
| And perfectly divine, | 15 |
| With Truth, and Peace, and Love, shall ever shine | |
| About the supreme Throne | |
| Of Him, to whose happy-making sight alone | |
| When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb, | |
| Then, all this earthly grossness quit, | 20 |
| Attired with stars we shall forever sit, | |
| Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, | |
| O Time! | |
| |
|
|
|
