I <br />Only a man harrowing clods <br />In a slow silent walk <br />With an old horse that stumbles and nods <br />Half asleep as they stalk. <br /> <br /> II <br />Only thin smoke without flame <br />From the heaps of couch-grass; <br />Yet this will go onwards the same <br />Though Dynasties pass. <br /> <br /> III <br />Yonder a maid and her wight <br />Go whispering by: <br />War's annals will cloud into night <br />Ere their story die.<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-time-of/
