Now twice my watch have I taken,
And twice as I've gazing sat,
The hand has pointed unshaken
To one--and it's long past that!
The clock's light cadences linger.
The sun-dial laughs from the lawn,
And points with a long, gaunt finger
The path that its shade has drawn.
A steeple ironically
Calls the true time to me.
The belfry bell makes tally
And taunts me with accents free.
Ah, dead is the wretch! I sought not,
Last night, to my reverie sold,
Its ruby circle! I thought not
Of glimmering key of gold!
No longer I see with pleasure
The spring of the balance-wheel
Flit hither and there at measure,
Like a butterfly form of steel.
When Hippogriff bears me, yearning,
Through skies of another sphere,
My soul-reft body goes turning
Wherever the steed may veer.
Eternity still is giving
Its gaze to the lifeless face.
Time seeketh the heart once living,
His ear at the old watch-case,--
That heart whose regular motion
Was followed within my breast
By wave-beats of life's full ocean!
Ah well! the watch is at rest.
But its brother is beating ever,
Steadfast and sturdy kept
By One Who forgetteth never,--
Who wound it the while I slept.