Oh, thou who dost these pointers see,
And hears't the chiming hour,
Say, do I tell the time to thee,
And tell thee nothing more;—
I bid thee mark life's little day
By stokes of duty done;—
A clock may stop at any time,
But time will travel on.
I am a preacher to a few,—
A servant unto all,
As here I stand tick, ticking,
like a death watch in a wall;
And, it were well that those who see
These fingers gliding on,
Should think a moment, now and then,
How fast the moments run.
There's some of you are wealthy,
And some of you are proud;
And some are poor, and some are sad,
And waiting for a shroud;—
Be patient yet a while, for see
This little yard below,—
The man who goes the longest way,
Has not so far to go.
A christening; then, a wedding comes;
And then, a passing bell;
'Tis just the ancient tale that time
Has always had to tell:
The very clock that marks the hour,
With ticking wears away;
The gladdest pulse of life contains
the music of decay.
Notes
From Waugh's Poems and Songs published by John Heywood and edited by George Milner.
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Comments
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time
time is always moving no matter if the clock is running or not, nice poem -
Brilliant peace of work. Thanks for sharing.
Josh. -
Time is relative, so Einstein says. Relative to what? We are born, we live our lives, we die. The time between life and death, and what we do with it, is what we are measured by. I too, ponder time, but only to wonder whether i have enough left to complete what I have recently started. This poem is quite brilliant in the way it covers so much of life in such a short poem. Obviously a wonder with his word choice, not one word is wasted.
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This (Clocks and time) is a theme I am pondering on a lot these days but I have not as yet come up with anything to beat these lines from Rochdale's most famous poet.
The way he covers so much of life in 4 short verses is excellent and it is little wonder that even today his name is still honoured in his home town.
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