 | Graffiti d'Italia |  |
345
THE RIVER OF TIME.
Oh! the river that runs for ever,
The rapid river of time!
The silent river, that pauses never,
Nor ceases its solemn rhyme!
The rapid river of time!
The silent river, that pauses never,
Nor ceases its solemn rhyme!
How swift by the flowery banks it rushes,
Where love and joy are at play,
And stretch out their hands with laughter and blushes,
And beg it in vain to stay!
Where love and joy are at play,
And stretch out their hands with laughter and blushes,
And beg it in vain to stay!
How slow through the sullen marsh of sorrow
It creeps with a lingering pain;
When night comes down and we long for the morrow.
And longing is all in vain!
It creeps with a lingering pain;
When night comes down and we long for the morrow.
And longing is all in vain!
346
O'er sparkling shoals of glittering folly,
O'er deeps of dreadful crime,
O'er gladness and madness and melancholy,
Through fears and hopes sublime,
O'er deeps of dreadful crime,
O'er gladness and madness and melancholy,
Through fears and hopes sublime,
Ruthlessly on in waking or sleeping,
Unheeding our wish or will,
Through loving and laughing, and wailing and weeping,
It bears us for good or ill—
Unheeding our wish or will,
Through loving and laughing, and wailing and weeping,
It bears us for good or ill—
Bears us down with a fearful motion,
In a current no eye can see,
Down to the vast mysterious ocean
We call eternity.
In a current no eye can see,
Down to the vast mysterious ocean
We call eternity.
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