Time & Brevity

XIX

by William Ernest Henley 1849–1903

From The Song of the Sword, and Other Verses

Time & Brevity

O Time and Change, they range and range
From sunshine round to thunder!--
They glance and go as the great winds blow,
And the best of our dreams drive under:
For Time and Change estrange, estrange--
And, now they have looked and seen us,
O we that were dear we are all-too near
With the thick of the world between us.

O Death and Time, they chime and chime
Like bells at sunset falling!--
They end the song, they right the wrong,
They set the old echoes calling:
For Death and Time bring on the prime
Of God's own chosen weather,
And we lie in the peace of the Great Release
As once in the grass together.

MLA

Henley, William Ernest. “XIX.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/henley/161/.

Chicago

Henley, William Ernest. “XIX.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/henley/161/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by William Ernest Henley