The Length of Time

It has before been brought to bear

A common woe, we mortals share

Our lives e'er trapped inside of it

Suggests this fiend is infinite

And so I have no reason, known

To doubt the beast which death has shown

Except that in my pithy mind

I cannot see or seem to find

A reason not to doubt that breadth

Which stretches from our birth to death

Should end upon our final sigh

Should die the day that we, too, die

And so held captive, as we are

Inside this lidless prison-jar

Who can say when we have ceased

We have been, from the jar, released?

So this device from terror sent

Cannot be tested or defined

By human law or instrument

And so my thoughts must be resigned

To form a heaven-measurement

That its bound'ries I might find

And so sought wisdom from above

And heaven's creatures answered me

I shall measure it with love

A love no less than love for thee

And now my heart did leap to heights

Entrusted with this secret, rare

Gladdened to have solved my plight

My spirit fluttered in the air

But then, as soon as I had flown

A muse resent me to the ground

Supplied a truth, as yet, un-shown

And to the orb my spirit, bound

For this device from heaven's cove

Knew me well; though not I, it

And how had I forgot our love

Was undefined and infinite?

And so because my mind is caught

Between eternity and naught

I shall only know to measure time

By days on earth that you are mine