A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick

235. UPON TIME

     Time was upon
     The wing, to fly away;
     And I call'd on
     Him but awhile to stay;
     But he'd be gone,
     For aught that I could say.

     He held out then
     A writing, as he went,
     And ask'd me, when
     False man would be content
     To pay again
     What God and Nature lent.

     An hour-glass,
     In which were sands but few,
     As he did pass,
     He shew'd,—and told me too
     Mine end near was;—
     And so away he flew.