Even Such Is Time
by Sir Walter Raleigh
Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.
Sir Walter Raleigh lived from 1552 to 1618. This has always been a favourite short poem of mine since I was a teenager. I read it at my mother’s memorial service in April of 2023, and I wish I had thought to share it with her during her last days in hospice care, but I never did. Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, for me this poem expresses trust and confidence, a belief that all is right with the world, or can be. See also Jane Kenyon’s “Let Evening Come.”