William Robert Spencer

* * *

TOO late I stayed, — forgive the crime!
  Unheeded flew the hours:
How noiseless falls the foot of Time
  That only treads on flowers!

And who, with clear account, remarks
  The ebbings of this glass,
When all its sands are diamond sparks,
  That dazzle as they pass?

O, who to sober measurement
  Time’s happy swiftness brings,
When birds of paradise have lent
  Their plumage to his wings?