Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
John Milton. 16081674308. On Time
FLY envious Time, till thou run out thy race, | |
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours, | |
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace; | |
And glut thy self with what thy womb devours, | |
Which is no more then what is false and vain, | 5 |
And meerly mortal 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 consum’d, | 10 |
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss | |
With an individual kiss; | |
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood, | |
When every thing that is sincerely good | |
And perfectly divine, | 15 |
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine | |
About the supreme Throne | |
Of him, t’whose happy-making sight alone, | |
When once our heav’nly-guided soul shall clime, | |
Then all this Earthy grosnes quit, | 20 |
Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit, | |
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time. |