Come back, true love! Sweet youth, return!- But time goes on, and will, unheeding, Though hands will reach, and eyes will yearn, And the wild days set true hearts bleeding.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker laments the loss of youth and love, recognizing that time moves forward regardless of human desire or pain.
- In plain terms
- He wishes youth and love could return, but time keeps moving without caring about their wishes.
- What can you take from it?
- Time does not wait for our desires to return to the past.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you cope with time passing?
- What would you ask time if it could hear you?
Another view
It presents time as purely unheeding without acknowledging human agency in shaping the future.
More from Conrad Aiken
All lovely things will have an ending, All lovely things will fade and die, And youth, that's now so bravely spending, Will beg a penny by and by.
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