Page:Poems Holford.djvu/39

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ODE TO TIME.
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1802.

INSCRIBED TO MISS SEWARD.





Oh Thou, whose viewless form, slow-stealing Time,
Has silent march'd o'er many a conquer'd year,
Shall thy chill pow'r pervade the glowing rhyme!
Shall thy rude hand each tuneful record tear!
Shall genius raise aloft the soul-fraught strain,
And swell the choral tide of heav'n-taught verse in vain!

Tho' ages past have own'd thy tyrant sway,
Tho' many a wreck the spoiler's power reveals,