FLY envious Time, till thou run out thy race, Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours, Whose

speed is but the heavy Plummets pace; nd glut thy sel! "ith "hat thy "omb devours, Which is no more then "hat is !alse and vain, nd meerly mortal dross; #o little is our loss, #o little is thy gain$ For "hen as each thing bad thou hast entomb%d, nd last o! all, thy greedy sel! consum%d, Then long &ternity shall greet our bliss With an individual 'iss; nd (oy shall overta'e us as a !lood, When every thing that is sincerely good nd per!ectly divine, With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine bout the supreme Throne )! him, t%"hose happy-ma'ing sight alone, When once our heav%nly-guided soul shall clime, Then all this &arthy grosnes *uit, ttir%d "ith #tars, "e shall !or ever sit, Triumphing over +eath, and Chance, and thee ) Time$

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,,, This short poem, -On Time., "as "ritten by (ohn /ilton sometime in the early 0123%s$ t the

margin o! the manuscript page that contains these verses, the poet noted4 -To be set on a cloc' case.$$$ giving us a clue about the use he "as imagining !or this composition$ 5ut more generally, this poem is meant to be a consolation !or the passing o! Time and a prevision o! !uture &ternity, and it is dedicated to all human'ind$ )ur /ilton poem achieves this e!!ect by setting out an allegory o! Time$ 6ere he observes that its e!!orts to overcome us, on one hand, and all our concerns about Time running too !ast on the other "ill be useless in the end$ 6e argues, in !act, that also Time must end, along "ith the things that 'eep him present, that are human a!!airs and earthly needs$ 7n the verses !rom one to si8, /ilton sets the usual personification o! Time as 9ronos or #aturn using a regular !ree-verse scheme o! alternating rhymes$ 5eing one o! the most !re*uented topoi o! classical literature, he represents him as a "inged man, devouring the many "orries "e bear in our lives as a conse*uence o! our -mortal dross.4 that o! Time % edax rerum' is a !eature that goes bac' to )vid, passing through Petrarch%s -Triumpus Temporis.$ 6e is accompanied by the 6ours, "hose slo"ness strongly opposes the rushing nature o! their master$ Their slo" progression is emphasized

through the similitude bet"een their pace and the one o! the lead dragged do"n by gravity$ /ilton addresses Time directly, e8horting, or rather allo"ing him to do "hatever he li'es, since he can only nourish himsel! "ith transitory things$ 5ut, as he claims in the t"o !ollo"ing verses, its destruction is not a great loss !or us, nor a great gain !or him$ These t"o verses represent the e8position o! the "riter%s main argument, and they are in !act mar'ed by a rapid metric acceleration$ /ilton discuss his point o! vie" using a t"o!old narration, describing the e8act moment in "hich Time "ill end$ This is conducted through the anaphora o! the adverbs %when... then%, and rein!orced by the use o! %shall%, t"ice !or each instant$ From the metric point o! vie" "e have no" rhyming couplets$ The !irst instance is then dedicated to Time%s gluttony4 once his hunger !or human activities had consumed us, and he had e8hausted all o! the bad things, then "e "ill be delivered by pain through (oy and 'issed individually by &ternity$ The second instance is rather a conse*uence o! the e8tinction o! every temporal a!!ection$ &ternal things such as Truth, Love and Peace "ill reemerge and gather around the throne o! :od ;<ust alluded through periphrasis= to shine !orever, "hile all gross human conditions, such as +eath, Chance and Time himsel! "ill be de!eated !or good$ >educing melancholy through beauti!ul sounds and visions is one o! the miraculous po"ers o! poetry$ /ilton tries to escape the clutches o! Time in the speech and to diminish his importance, in the mind o! his hearers, leaving us in a delivered, ecstatic state o! mind$