When Death from some fair face <br />Is stealing life away, <br />All weep, save she, the grace <br />That earth shall lose today. <br /> <br />When Time from some fair face <br />Steals beauty year by year, <br />For her slow-fading grace <br />Who sheds, save she, a tear? <br /> <br />And Death not often dares <br />To wake the world's distress; <br />While Time, the cunning, mars <br />Surely all loveliness. <br /> <br />Yet though by breath and breath <br />Fades all thy fairest prime, <br />Men shrink from cruel Death, <br />But honor crafty Time.<br /><br />Francis William Bourdillon<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/two-robbers/
