Fatal thy flight to worldly things,
Thy darts cut down and ruin all.

A cloud from us thy form conceals;
Enwrapt its gloomy folds among,
Thou mov'st eternity's vast wheels,
And with them movest us along.

The swift-winged days thou urgest on,
With them life's sand beholdest pass,
And when our transient hours are gone,
Thou smilest at their exhausted glass.

Against Time's look, when he but frowns,
All strength, and skill, and power, are vain;
He withers laurels, wreaths, and crowns,
And breaks the matrimonial chain.

As Time moves onward, far and wide
His restless scythe mows all away,
All feels his breath, on every side
All sinks, resistless, to decay.

To youth's gay bloom and beauty's charms
Mercy alike stern Time denies,
Like vernal flowers o'erwhelmed by storms,
Whate'er he looks at droops and dies.

Huge piles from earth his mighty hand
Sweeps to oblivion's empire dread,