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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO HIS WATCH, WHEN HE COULD NOT SLEEP by EDWARD HERBERT

First Line: UNCESSANT MINUTES, WHILST YOU MOVE YOU TELL
Last Line: YOU DIE IN TIME, TIME IN ETERNITY.
Subject(s): INSOMNIA; WATCHES; SLEEPLESSNESS;

UNCESSANT minutes, whilst you move you tell
The time that tells our life, which, though it run
Never so fast or far, your new-begun
Short steps shall overtake; for though life well

May 'scape his own account, it shall not yours:
You are Death's auditors, that both divide
And sum whate'er that life inspir'd endures
Past a beginning, and through you we bide

The doom of Fate, whose unrecall'd decree
You date, bring, execute; making what's new
(Ill and good) old; for as we die in you,
You die in Time, Time in Eternity.



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