Time goes, you say? Ah no! Alas, Time stays, we go; Or else, were this not so, What need to chain the hours, For Youth were always ours? Time goes, you say?-ah no! Ours is the eyes' deceit Of men whose flying feet Lead through some landscape low; We pass, and think we see The earth's fixed surface flee:- Alas, Time stays, -we go! Once in the days of old, Your locks were curling gold, And mine had shamed the crow. Now, in the self-same stage, We've reached the silver age; Time goes, you say?-ah no! Once, when my voice was strong, I filled the woods with song To praise your 'rose' and 'snow'; My bird, that sang, is dead; Where are your roses fled? Alas, Time stays, -we go! See, in what traversed ways, What backward Fate delays The hopes we used to know; Where are our old desires?- Ah, where those vanished fires? Time goes, you say?-ah no! How far, how far, O Sweet, The past behind our feet Lies in the even-glow! Now, on the forward way, Let us fold hands, and pray; Alas, Time stays, -we go! . Henry Austin Dobson
About This Quote

The poem "Time Goes, You Say?" is about the agony of being separated from someone that one loves. The speaker is telling his lover that there are times when he wishes that time would stop. He does not want to leave her, but knows that he must leave. The speaker is recalling a time when he was young together with his lover, when he sang together with her and she had beautiful golden hair.

However, now the speaker is older and they have reached different stages in life, but they have come back together again. He wants her to know that while time has passed on him, it has stayed with her and continues to go on with him.

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More Quotes By Henry Austin Dobson
  1. Time goes, you say? Ah no! Alas, Time stays, we go; Or else, were this not so, What need to chain the hours, For Youth were always ours? Time goes, you say?-ah no! Ours is the eyes' deceit Of men whose flying feet Lead through...
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  3. Love comes unseen we only see it go.
  4. Time goes, you say? Ah, no! alas, time stays, we go.
  5. What ye have been ye still shall be, When we are dust the dust among, O yellow flowers!
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