Ye Sundial Booke

Name: Ye Sundial Booke
Author: Henslow, T. Geoffrey W. (Thomas Geoffrey Wall)

Henslow, T. Geoffrey W. (Thomas Geoffrey Wall)

Sundials

Speech is silver, so I have been told,
                 And some virtue for copper there be,
               But far above all is a silence that’s gold
                 What a valuable sundial you see.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL ON LEE CHURCH.

  Date 1760.
]

                         Amen it is so,
                           Amen so let it be.
                         Mortals learn to know
                           Time’s of Eternity.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL ON A CHURCH, MARWENSTOW, CORNWALL.
]

                       Lead kindly light,
                         Illuminate my way;
                       Let thy effulgence bright,
                         Turn night to day.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL 20th CENTURY.
]

                       Such is life,
                         Short as a day;
                       Full of strife,
                         Work, thought, and play.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL AT WALTON HALL, NEAR WAKEFIELD.

  Date 1813.
]

                         Halt I’ll never,
                           Stop me if you can;
                         I move for ever,
                           In spite of man.

[Illustration:

  EARLY GREEK DIAL, ORCHOMENOS, BOEOTIA.
]

                  I have no use for twilight,
                    For the rays of the silvery moon;
                  Sol’s brightest beams are my light,
                    Depart they ever so soon.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL AT HADDINGTON, SCOTLAND.
]

                  When man a fortune would repair,
                  Hours and minutes take their share;
                  But when the same he throws away,
                  He reckons life but by the day.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL AT STOKE D’ABERNON, SURREY.
]

                  We liken boundless things to time,
                    To teach unending span,
                  But fail to show in prose or rhyme,
                    Its origin’s from man.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL AT TRAVELLER’S REST, NEW YORK. 1770.
]

                 Traveller, gaze on this dial and pray
                   That your life may be full of sun;
                 With hours retarded day by day,
                   And pleasure in every one.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL IN GREYSTOKE CHURCHYARD.

  Date 1810.
]

                    Upon the evil and the good,
                      Ever sun doth shine;
                    But what’s so seldom understood,
                      Is charity divine.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL AT SHENSTONE VICARAGE, LICHFIELD.
]

                     If I mark a day of loss,
                       Gain one shade can give,
                     ’Tis the shadow of the cross,
                       That bids dead hours live.

[Illustration:

  SUNDIAL AT BOLTON ABBEY.
]

                 Smile traveller, smile,
                   Look happy and banish all care;
                 There’s time on the face of this dial,
                   For a laugh, but never a tear.

[Illustration:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Ye Sundial Booke

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