How yesterday is long ago! The past

How yesterday is long ago! The past

Is a fixed infinite distance from to-day,

And bygone things, the first-lived as the last,

In irreparable sameness far away.

How the to-be is infinitely ever

Out of the place wherein it will be Now,

Like the seen wave yet far up in the river,

Which reaches not us, but the new-waved flow!

This thing Time is, whose being is having none,

The equable tyrant of our different fates,

Who could not be bought off by a shattered sun

Or tricked by new use of our careful dates.

This thing Time is, that to the grave-will bear

My heart, sure but of it and of my fear.

Form: Sonnet Comments

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Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace