Eternal Time, That Wastest Without Waste



Eternal Time, that wastest without waste,
That art and art not, diest, and livest still;
Most slow of all, and yet of greatest haste;
Both ill and good, and neither good nor ill:
How can I justly praise thee, or dispraise?
Dark are thy nights, but bright and clear thy days.

Both free and scarce, thou giv'st and tak'st again;
Thy womb that all doth breed, is tomb to all;
What so by thee hath life, by thee is slain;
From thee do all things rise, by thee they fall:
Constant, inconstant, moving, standing still;
Was, Is, Shall be, do thee both breed and kill.

I lose thee, while I seek to find thee out;
The farther off, the more I follow thee;
The faster hold, the greater cause of doubt;
Was, Is, I know; but Shall, I cannot see.
All things by thee are measur'd; thou, by none:
All are in thee; thou, in thyself alone.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
38

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCC XDXDBB EXECXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 812
Words 159
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6

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    "Eternal Time, That Wastest Without Waste" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/3375/eternal-time,-that-wastest-without-waste>.

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    Which of the following is not one of the "three unities"?
    A Unity of place
    B Unity of action
    C Unity of character
    D Unity of time