As Time One Day By Me Did Pass
AS
Time
one
day
by
me
did
pass,
Through
a
large
dusky
glass
He
held,
I
chanc'd
to
look,
And
spied
his
curious
book
Of
past
days,
where
sad
Heav'n
did
shed
A
mourning
light
upon
the
dead.
Many
disorder'd
lives
I
saw,
And
foul
records,
which
thaw
My
kind
eyes
still,
but
in
A
fair,
white
page
of
thin
And
ev'n,
smooth
lines,
like
the
sun's
rays,
Thy
name
was
writ,
and
all
thy
days.
O
bright
and
happy
kalendar
!
Where
youth
shines
like
a
star
All
pearl'd
with
tears,
and
may
Teach
age
the
holy
way
;
Where
through
thick
pangs,
high
agonies,
Faith
into
life
breaks,
and
Death
dies.
As
some
meek
night-piece
which
day
quails,
To
candle-light
unveils
:
So
by
one
beamy
line
From
thy
bright
lamp,
did
shine
In
the
same
page
thy
humble
grave,
Set
with
green
herbs,
glad
hopes
and
brave.
Here
slept
my
thought's
dear
mark
!
which
dust
Seem'd
to
devour,
like
rust
;
But
dust—I
did
observe—
By
hiding
doth
preserve
;
As
we
for
long
and
sure
recruits,
Candy
with
sugar
our
choice
fruits.
O
calm
and
sacred
bed,
where
lies
In
death's
dark
mysteries
A
beauty
far
more
bright
Than
the
noon's
cloudless
light
;
For
whose
dry
dust
green
branches
bud,
And
robes
are
bleach'd
in
the
Lamb's
blood.
Sleep,
happy
ashes
!—blessed
sleep
!—
While
hapless
I
still
weep
;
Weep
that
I
have
outliv'd
My
life,
and
unreliev'd
Must—soullesse
shadow
!—so
live
on,
Though
life
be
dead,
and
my
joys
gone.
