On Time

Photo from earlier in January

Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race,

Call on the lazy, leaden-stepping hours,

Whose speed is but the heavy plummet’s pace,

And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,

Which is no more than what is false and vain,

And merely mortal dross;

So little is our loss,

So little is thy gain,

For when as each thing bad thous hast entombed,

And last of all thy greedy self consumed,

Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss

With an individual kiss,

And joy shall overtake us as a flood;

When every thing that is sincerely good

And perfectly divine,

With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine

About the supreme throne

Of Him, t’whose happy-making sight alone

When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb,

Then, all this earthy grossness quit,

Attired with stars we shall for ever sit

     Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time.

~ John Milton