|
Time's Paces is a poem about the apparent speeding up of time as one gets older. It was written by Henry Twells (1823 - 1900) and published in his book ''Hymns and Other Stray Verses'' (1901). The poem was popularised by Guy Pentreath (1902 - 1985) in an amended version. Pentreath saw the poem ''Time's Paces'' attached to a clock case in the North Transept of Chester Cathedral where it is to be seen today.〔See this ChesterTourist.com website: http://www.chestertourist.com/cathedral.htm ''Retrieved 2012.02.22.'' Photographs of the clock and the poem are to be found by scrolling down this large collection of photographs. 〕 Recently the poem was even set to music.〔See this 'Chester on the web' site about the restoration of the clock and the use of the song to mark its re-dedication. http://www.chesterontheweb.com/chester/94-chester-cathedral-events/473-chester-cathedral-clock-restored.html ''Retrieved 2012-02-22.''〕 Pentreath quoted his version of the poem in his last sermon at Wrekin College, Shropshire where he was headmaster till 1952.〔Information supplied by e-mail by the Assistant Archivist at Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire where Pentreath was headmaster from 1952 to 1959.〕 His version then entered the public domain. Perhaps he wrote the poem down from memory and reconstructed it in the process. He may not have consciously intended to improve on Twells' version. The last four lines of Pentreath's version were missed out in Whitrow's quotation in his book, ''The Natural Philosophy of Time'' and in some quotations in other books. The first sentence also begins with "For" as in "For when I was a babe . . ." This was added by Whitrow who may have received the poem orally or informally from Pentreath since he gives no reference source for the poem in his otherwise well referenced book.〔 Cf. G.J. Whitrow, '' The Natural Philosophy of Time'', Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1st ed. 1961, 2nd ed. 1980, Ch. 2, p.63, and also in his later book: ''The Nature of Time'', London: Penguin, 1975, p. 39. Whitrow's shortened version also appears in ''The Anthropic Cosmological Principle'' by John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, Oxford: OUP, 1988, p. 641, but it is wrongly attributed to Henry Twells. 〕 The two versions are shown here: When as a child I laughed and wept, Time crept. When as a youth I waxed more bold, Time ''strolled''. When I became a full grown man, Time RAN. When older still I daily grew, Time FLEW. Soon I shall find, in passing on, Time ''gone''. O Christ! wilt Thou have saved me then? Amen. When I was a babe and wept and slept, Time crept; When I was a boy and laughed and talked, Time walked. Then when the years saw me a man, Time ran. But as I older grew, Time flew. Soon, as I journey on, I'll find time gone. May Christ have saved my soul, by then, Amen. == References == 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Time's Paces」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|