Song



If space and time, as sages say,
    Are things which cannot be,
The fly that lives a single day
    Has lived as long as we.
But let us live while yet we may,
    While love and life are free,
For time is time, and runs away,
    Though sages disagree.

The flowers I sent thee when the dew
    Was trembling on the vine,
Were withered ere the wild bee flew
    To suck the eglantine.
But let us haste to pluck anew
    Nor mourn to see them pine,
And though the flowers of love be few
    Yet let them be divine.
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Submitted by halel on July 13, 2020

Modified on March 24, 2023

29 sec read
49

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABABAB CDCDCDCD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 498
Words 99
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8

T. S. Eliot

 · 1965 · Kensington

Thomas Stearns Eliot OM was an American-British poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25 and went on to settle, work and marry there. more…

All T. S. Eliot poems | T. S. Eliot Books

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    "Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 5 Feb. 2025. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/54146/song>.

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