Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
EmpiresFrancis Burdett Money-Coutts (18521923)
H
The end of all the ages lurks?
That God is printing the last page
Of the last volume of his Works?
Of God, how very slow they grind?
Why should we fancy on our hills
Their sails are sped by earthly wind?
And vaster dynasties before,
Now faded in Time’s monochrome,
In what do we surpass their lore?
Some things we know by them unknown;
But the axles of their wheels were hot
With the same frenzies as our own.