The Touch Of Time

John Le Gay Brereton 1871 (Sydney) – 1933



Time, who with soft pale ashes veils the brand
Of many a hope that flared against the sky
To plant its heaven-storming banners high,
Has touched you with no desecrating hand;
Your beauty wins a ripeness sweet and bland
As opulent summer, and your glancing eye
Glows with a deeper lustre, and your sigh
Of love is still my clamouring heart's command.

Yet what if all your fairness were defaced,
Wilted by passionate whirlwinds, battle-scarred,
Your skin of delicate satin hard and dry?
Still you would be the laughing girl who graced
A gloomy manhood, by forebodings marred,
In the deep wood where still we love to lie.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
110

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBA CDBCDB
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 613
Words 110
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

John Le Gay Brereton

John Le Gay Brereton was an Australian poet, critic and professor of English at the University of Sydney. He was the first president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers when it was formed in Sydney in 1928. more…

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