Day by day the sunshine comes and goes,
The moaning sea tide ebbs and flows,
Yet Time the unmeasured, measuring all,
From slow advance the swift retreat will call.
Day by day Time gives to Pleasure wings;
To Pain, what leaden feet he brings!
He cradles Hope--yet gives not sweet repose
To Fame, till Death a monument bestows!
Day by day Time, counsel of the wise,
Sees Folly with its bells devise
The chime that rings aloud Ambition's name
In peals of joy, to echo knells of shame!
Day by day Time lends to Friendship hands
That write for Sorrow, on the sands
Where tides will come and go, the name of Love
That seas will drown and leave no sign to prove!
Day by day Time rolls the scroll of Life,
Yet man heeds not in worldly strife
The vanished years, till Death demands his claim--
The mound-lines of the clay that mark his name.
