Erewhile high-flush'd with insolence and wine ?
* Like that, the dial speaks; and points to thee,
LORENZO ! loth to break thy banquet up.
" O man, thy kingdom is departing from thee;
" And, while it lasts, is emptier than my shade."
Its silent language such ; nor need'st thou call
Thy magi, to decypher what it means :
Know, like the Median, fate is in thy walls :
Dost ask, how ? whence ? Belshazzar-like, amazed ?
Man's make encloses the sure seeds of death ;
Life feeds the murderer: ingrate! he thrives
On her own meal, and then his nurse devours.

But here, LORENZO, the delusion lies ;
That solar shadow, as it measures life,
It life resembles too : life speeds away
From point to point, though seeming to stand still :
The cunning fugitive is swift by stealth,
Too subtle is the movement to be seen ;
Yet soon man's hour is up, and we are gone.
Warnings point out our danger; gnomons, time :
As these are useless when the sun is set;
So those, but when more glorious reason shines :
Reason should judge in all; in reason's eye,
That sedentary shadow travels hard :
But such our gravitation to the wrong,
So prone our hearts to whisper what we wish,
'Tis later with the wise, than he's aware ;
A Wilmington goes slower than the sun ;
And all mankind mistake their time of day ;
Even age itself: fresh hopes are hourly sown

The Poet's Library, ed. by R. Edwards, New York, 1911.

33

Erewhile high-flush'd with insolence and wine ?
* Like that, the dial speaks; and points to thee,
LORENZO ! loth to break thy banquet up.
" O man, thy kingdom is departing from thee;
" And, while it lasts, is emptier than my shade."
Its silent language such ; nor need'st thou call
Thy magi, to decypher what it means :
Know, like the Median, fate is in thy walls :
Dost ask, how ? whence ? Belshazzar-like, amazed ?
Man's make encloses the sure seeds of death ;
Life feeds the murderer: ingrate! he thrives
On her own meal, and then his nurse devours.
But here, LORENZO, the delusion lies ;
That solar shadow, as it measures life,
It life resembles too: life speeds away
From point to point, though seeming to stand still :
The cunning fugitive is swift by stealth,
Too subtle is the movement to be seen ;
Yet soon man's hour is up, and we are gone.
Warnings point out our danger; gnomons, time :
As these are useless when the sun is set;
So those, but when more glorious reason shines :
Reason should judge in all; in reason's eye,
That sedentary shadow travels hard :
But such our gravitation to the wrong,
So prone our hearts to whisper what we wish,
'Tis later with the wise, than he's aware ;
A Wilmington goes slower than the sun ;
And all mankind mistake their time of day ;
Even age itself: fresh hopes are hourly sown

2320 -0001

B1978.43.1394

P.O. 1297

(These charts are for monitor calibration only)

97L

50L

20L

Yale Center for British Art, 2010