Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By John Milton (16081674)On TimeTo be set on a Clock-Case
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 human dross; | |
So little is our loss, | |
So little is thy gain! | |
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d, | |
And last of all thy greedy self consumed, | 10 |
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss | |
With an individual kiss; | |
And Joy shall overtake 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 for ever sit | |
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, | |
O Time. | |