O TIME ! still urging to eternity,
In thy deep womb the world's vast actions lie —
Thy hours still whirl us on in full career,
Day following day, and year succeeding year;
Old moments ending as the new ones rise —
For thy first child, Succession , never dies;
But all things human own thy sov'reign pow'r,
Just live and die — a thousand in an hour.

Kings, empires, thrones and nations fade away,
And others still succeed as they decay;
Fair peace and horrid war still rule by turns,
With love and rage the world, alternate, burns;
And thus the same rotation shall be seen,
Till consummation shuts this earthly scene!

What then avails t' invoke the sacred Nine,
Or humbly bend us at the Muse's shrine,
When we, together with out loftiest rhime,
Shrink to oblivion, at one blast of Time?