Years Following Years Steal Something Every Day; At Last They Steal Us From Ourselves Away.

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Years following years steal something every day;
At last they steal us from ourselves away.
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-- Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace, Epistle ii, Book ii, Line 72

The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.
Words that wise Bacon or brave Raleigh spoke.
Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old.
Praise undeserv'd is scandal in disguise.
The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease.
Who says in verse what others say in prose.
Above all Greek, above all Roman fame.
E'en copious Dryden wanted or forgot The last and greatest art,--the art to blot.
Lord Fanny spins a thousand such a day.

Years Following Years Steal Something Every Day; At Last They Steal Us From Ourselves Away.

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