John Milton. (1608–1674). Complete Poems.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-Three |
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| (1631) |
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| HOW soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, | |
| Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! | |
| My hasting days fly on with full career, | |
| But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th. | |
| Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, | 5 |
| That I to manhood am arrived so near, | |
| And inward ripeness doth much less appear, | |
| That some more timely-happy spirits indu’th. | |
| Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, | |
| It shall be still in strictest measure even | 10 |
| To that same lot, however mean or high, | |
| Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven, | |
| All is, if I have grace to use it so, | |
| As ever in my great Task-master’s eye | |
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