Time goes, you say? Ah no! <br />Alas, Time stays, we go; <br />Or else, were this not so, <br />What need to chain the hours, <br />For Youth were always ours? <br />Time goes, you say?-ah no! <br /> <br />Ours is the eyes' deceit <br />Of men whose flying feet <br />Lead through some landscape low; <br />We pass, and think we see <br />The earth's fixed surface flee:- <br />Alas, Time stays,-we go! <br /> <br />Once in the days of old, <br />Your locks were curling gold, <br />And mine had shamed the crow. <br />Now, in the self-same stage, <br />We've reached the silver age; <br />Time goes, you say?-ah no! <br /> <br />Once, when my voice was strong, <br />I filled the woods with song <br />To praise your 'rose' and 'snow'; <br />My bird, that sang, is dead; <br />Where are your roses fled? <br />Alas, Time stays,-we go! <br /> <br />See, in what traversed ways, <br />What backward Fate delays <br />The hopes we used to know; <br />Where are our old desires?- <br />Ah, where those vanished fires? <br />Time goes, you say?-ah no! <br /> <br />How far, how far, O Sweet, <br />The past behind our feet <br />Lies in the even-glow! <br />Now, on the forward way, <br />Let us fold hands, and pray; <br />Alas, Time stays,-we go!<br /><br />Henry Austin Dobson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-paradox-of-time-2/
