[Editor: This poem by E. J. Brady was published in The Earthen Floor (1902).]
XVI.
Time.
“Who painted Time with beard of white
And snows upon his head
He hath, in sooth, not painted right,”
The mourning Poet said.
Time is a Housemaid, young and fair,
Clear-eyed, with cheeks abloom,
Who, in the House of Joy-and-Care,
Toils ever with her broom.
Without the House of Joy-and-Care,
Without the open door,
A Narrow Box it standeth there
For aye and evermore.
And Virgin Time, along the Hall
Of this dull House of Life,
With ready broom she sweepeth all,
Our sorrows and our strife.
* * * *
The Narrow Box it holdeth well
The laughter and the tears;
The Narrow Box it holdeth well
The dust of all the years.
Source:
E. J. Brady, The Earthen Floor, Grafton (N.S.W.): Grip Newspaper Co., 1902
Editor’s notes:
aye = always, forever
sooth = (archaic) truth
Old spelling in the original text:
hath (has)
holdeth (holds)
standeth (stands)
sweepeth (sweeps)
Leave a Reply