Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WISE RULE, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WISE RULE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Time flies too fast, too fast our life decays
Last Line: Which is not any, but contains the three!
Subject(s): Transience; Impermanence


"TIME flies too fast, too fast our life decays."
Ah, faithless! in the present lies our being;
And not in lingering love for vanished days!

"Come, happy future, when my soul shall live."
Ah, fool! thy life is now, and not again;
The future holds not joy nor pain to give!

"Live for what is: future and past are naught."
Ah, blind! a flash, and what shall be, has been.
Where, then, is that for which thou takest thought?

Not in what has been, is, or is to be,
The wise soul lives, but in a wider time,
Which is not any, but contains the three!





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