Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

END OF THE WORLD by GEORGE ELLISTON

First Line: ONCE I KNEW THAT THE END OF THE WORLD
Last Line: WHO MEASURE TIME BY YEARS.
Subject(s): JUDGMENT DAY; END OF THE WORLD; DOOMSDAY; FALL OF MAN;
Once I knew that the end of the world
Lay back of twenty years;
Youth knows much, more than faith,
Oh, more than age and tears!

Curious that a truth may change
And be a truth anew;
I came twenty -- the end of the world
Was forty -- and not through --

Moving on, like a will o' the wisp
To fifty, sixty -- more --
Waning but to shine again
As mystic as before.

Now I pledge you, who know at last
Beyond all foolish fears;
The end of the world comes only for those
Who measure time by years.



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