Even such is Time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with [age]1 and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days;
[And from which earth, and grave, and dust]2,
[The Lord]3 shall raise me up, I trust.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Gurney: "earth"
² Gurney: "But from this earth, this grave, this dust"
³ Gurney: "My God"

Text Authorship:

• by Walter Raleigh, Sir (1552? - 1618), "Epitaph", found in his Bible in the Gate House at Westminster. [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Jack Hamilton Beeson (b. 1921), "The conclusion", 1952, rev. 1959, 1995, first performed 1958 [ high voice and piano ], from Six Lyrics, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ina Boyle (1889 - 1967), "Even such time", 1912 [ chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Even such is time", 1917, published 1959 [ voice and piano ], revised 1918 and 1925 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernst Křenek (1900 - 1991), "Even such is time", op. 87 no. 2 (1939) [ chorus a cappella ], from Two choruses on Jacobean poems für Chor a cappella, no. 2, Wien und Leipzig, Universal Edition [sung text not yet checked]
• by Daan Manneke (b. 1939), "The author's epitaph", 1974 [ low voice and harpsichord or organ or piano ], from Five songs on English poems, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Phyllis Margaret Duncan Tate (1911 - 1987), "Epitaph" [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Der Abschluß", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 65