235. UPON TIME

Time was upon

The wing, to fly away;

And I call'd on

Him but awhile to stay;

But he'd be gone,

For aught that I could say.

He held out then

A writing, as he went,

And ask'd me, when

False man would be content

To pay again

What God and Nature lent.

An hour-glass,

In which were sands but few,

As he did pass,

He shew'd,--and told me too

Mine end near was;--

And so away he flew.

A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick · 第 246 / 269 题