| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 1772–1834 |
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553. Time, Real and Imaginary
AN ALLEGORY |
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| ON the wide level of a mountain's head | |
| (I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place), | |
| Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread, | |
| Two lovely children run an endless race, | |
| A sister and a brother! | 5 |
| This far outstripp'd the other; | |
| Yet ever runs she with reverted face, | |
| And looks and listens for the boy behind: | |
| For he, alas! is blind! | |
| O'er rough and smooth with even step he pass'd, | 10 |
| And knows not whether he be first or last. | |
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