I <br /> <br />The moving sun-shapes on the spray, <br />The sparkles where the brook was flowing, <br />Pink faces, plightings, moonlit May, <br />These were the things we wished would stay; <br />But they were going. <br /> <br />II <br /> <br />Seasons of blankness as of snow, <br />The silent bleed of a world decaying, <br />The moan of multitudes in woe, <br />These were the things we wished would go; <br />But they were staying. <br /> <br />III <br /> <br />Then we looked closelier at Time, <br />And saw his ghostly arms revolving <br />To sweep off woeful things with prime, <br />Things sinister with things sublime <br />Alike dissolving.<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/going-and-staying/
