Time & Brevity

Horace to Leuconoe

by Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869–1935

From The Children of the Night (1897)

Time & Brevity

I pray you not, Leuconoe, to pore
With unpermitted eyes on what may be
Appointed by the gods for you and me,
Nor on Chaldean figures any more.
'T were infinitely better to implore
The present only: -- whether Jove decree
More winters yet to come, or whether he
Make even this, whose hard, wave-eaten shore
Shatters the Tuscan seas to-day, the last --
Be wise withal, and rack your wine, nor fill
Your bosom with large hopes; for while I sing,
The envious close of time is narrowing; --
So seize the day, -- or ever it be past, --
And let the morrow come for what it will.

MLA

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Horace to Leuconoe.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/robinson_ea/36/.

Chicago

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Horace to Leuconoe.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/robinson_ea/36/.

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