William Ernest Henley

Rhymes and Rhythms. 19. O, Time and Change

                   I. M.
                  R. L. S.
                 (1850–1894)

O, Time and Change, they range and range
   From sunshine round to thunder!—
They glance and go as the great winds blow,
   And the best of our dreams drive under:
For Time and Change estrange, estrange—
   And, now they have looked and seen us,
O, we that were dear, we are all-too near
   With the thick of the world between us.

O, Death and Time, they chime and chime
   Like bells at sunset falling!—
They end the song, they right the wrong,
   They set the old echoes calling:
For Death and Time bring on the prime
   Of God’s own chosen weather,
And we lie in the peace of the Great Release
   As once in the grass together.