He indeed shall happy be, Who makes the most of hours you see. If time by speech I could but tell, You, noisy cockerel, I’d excel. Each one alive some folk deride, And even me when sun doth hide. Without ye gnomon who can tell, Upon this dial where sunlight fell? Good luck, just like a summer’s sun, Lies in the path of everyone. Man need never darkness know, Who early to rise and sleep doth go. Traveller, take a look and see, I change each minute more than thee. With the rising sun I wake, And side by side our course we take. To-day is thine what God hath given, To-morrow may be first day’s heaven. He who sleeps both night and day, The cost of idleness must pay. To waste thy time is bad enough, But that of others, mortal, rough. Man, treat me with reverence, With time there’s no severance. I mark the hours as they come, But weary no man with the sum. Know the hour and thy mind, Thus fresh power you will find. Mark this hour and ere it dies, Let thy heart to Heaven rise. I am governed by the light, Man a shadow ’til the night. He who notes not hours or days, Time shall suddenly amaze. In your joy or in your sorrow, Sympathy from me come borrow. I’ve been ever taught to prove, Time’s eternal, so is love. I live a parable to all, Who note my shadow on this wall. I do my duty and I mark, The hours and minutes until dark. Pass on, like me, and let the day, Help thee further on thy way. Find in me a faithful friend, True and steadfast to the end. If but rightly understood, All God’s earthly gifts are good. Since Nature doth the seasons show, I only mark the hours that go. Every hour, each plant and flower, Gives reality to immortality. I live for ever, having done A work that’s worthy of the sun. Act thou like a shaft of light, Ere the chance is out of sight. I am only in disgrace. When the sun doth hide his face. Some evil you indeed must flee, If I become your enemy. May thy record in Heaven, Be like hours that I’ve given. The bright days only I record, But all are noted by the Lord. Like the flowers, ever try To catch the sun ere it go by. Take thy pleasure when you may, But to-day’s work do to-day. An hour never try to kill, For I can do that at my will.