Water and Time Divide the World Too Much

Water and time divide the world too much

So that we shiver under the winter's whip

Sunless and dazed who can command no ship

To bear us to the south; and time is such

That hands however strong can never rip

Its potent web binding us in today.

Time has divided us from all dead lovers,

All beauty that once had power and life that hovers

Now only in portrait of one mood. The gay

Or melancholy face is gone; paint covers

Canvas, conserving past with greater ease

Than we can hope for. Watcher from Saturn's ring

Might see that ignoble quarrel of a king

At cross-roads, and find no drama in what he sees,

Knowing, as we, the present of everything. .

Structure

15 lines · 2 stanzas