Reading Milton

One of the great things about being in college or grad school is that you are assigned works to read that require some effort but which end up being quite valuable in terms of knowledge and insight gained. I do read serious prose of course, but I'm not going to push that hard or put in the time to read too far outside my comfort zone. So, am I going to read Milton's Paradise Lost? No, I am not. But I did go to Google Books and devoted a few minutes of my precious time to read this awesome poem from Milton called, appropriately, "On Time." A touch of self improvement is better than none, I figure.

On Time

Fly envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace;
And glut thy self with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more then what is false and vain,
And meerly mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d,
And last of all, thy greedy self consum’d,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss;
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine
About the supreme Throne
Of him, t’whose happy-making sight alone,
When once our heav’nly-guided soul shall clime,
Then all this Earthy grosnes quit,
Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.

John Milton
(1608 - 1674)