Ere thy sunny hours do cease, Patience learn and be at peace. Remember whilst you have your prime, To get good value for your time. Note ye blessings that I bring, Ere these fleeting hours take wing. Since no man e’er can live for naught, See that you live e’en as you ought. Hour by hour I yearly strive, To show to men this dial’s alive. If life’s chances you ignore, Blame but yourself when you are poor. O haste before the end of day Impedes your work or stops your play. O happy land rejoice and sing, God bless the day, long live the King. Have patience like me, and never complain, When asked the same question again and again. Our life’s a bubble, hold it who can, For it goes with the wind, like the breath of man. Troubles, what are they? Clouds that must come, Blessings disguised, experience the sum. O strive each man like new mown hay, To hold those gifts that pass away. I live in the present, a past I recall, But my future depends on the strength of this wall. Haste, O haste, for ’twill soon be to-morrow, And hours that we waste bring days of sorrow. Good fortune, like these hours, will soon be past, So make the most of such while it doth last. He who made the sun, made too the shade, Let not life’s shadows anyone hide Him who made. Since He who gives can also take away, Let every man who lives go watch and pray. Within the sight of all I hourly stand, To praise, reproach, and teach throughout the land. Go, take your time is truly said, For we when gone are a long while dead. Let thy thoughts now dwell on the present you see, Not a past or a future continually. Year in, year out, silent the hours of day I tell, Nor vex like noisy clock or loudly chiming bell. Hours misspent I’d liken to weeds, With minutes for roots and seconds for seeds. He who starts each day with doubts or fears, Seldom smiles and is full of tears. A circle, a gnomon, a shadow, a look, Are worth more to men than the leaves of a book. Time tests our friends, and soon doth teach The value of their love and speech. Frail mortal, tell me, who hath power To stop ye tide or check ye hour? He is thrice wise, and he thrice blessed, Who portions out work, play, and rest. Though clouds may dull both hour and day, Love like the sun endures for aye. Time tests our friends and soon doth show Which is the friend and which the foe.