| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | I. Time Misspent | | By Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846) |
| | | THERE 1 is no remedy for time misspent; | |
| No healing for the waste of idleness, | |
| Whose very languor is a punishment | |
| Heavier than active souls can feel or guess. | |
| O hours of indolence and discontent, | 5 |
| Not now to be redeemed! ye sting not less, | |
| Because I know this span of life was lent | |
| For lofty duties, not for selfishness. | |
| Not to be whiled away in aimless dreams, | |
| But to improve ourselves, and serve mankind, | 10 |
| Life and its choicest faculties were given. | |
| Man should be ever better than he seems; | |
| And shape his acts, and discipline his mind, | |
| To walk, adorning earth, with hope of heaven. | |
| | | Note 1. From “A Song of Faith, Devout Exercises, and Sonnets, by Sir Aubrey de Vere, Bart., 1842.” [back] | | |
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