Time, thou supreme inexorable Judge, <br />Whom none can bribe, and none can overawe, <br />Who unto party rancour, private grudge, <br />Calmly opposeth equitable law, <br />Before whom advocacy vainly strives <br />To make the better cause to seem the worse, <br />To thy Tribunal, when our jangling lives <br />Are husht, I leave the verdict on my verse. <br />Irrevocably then wilt thou proclaim <br />What should have been, what now must ever be, <br />If in oblivion perish should my name, <br />Or shine aloft in mighty company. <br />I to my kind proffering of my poor best, <br />Remit to Time's arbitrament the rest.<br /><br />Alfred Austin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/any-poet-at-any-time/
