Wood plaque
Category
Wooden objects
Date
Unknown
Materials
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732892.2
Summary
Wooden plaque bearing the poem: Poem on wood below bust, reads as follows, 'How soon hath Time, the subtlethief of youth, Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year! My hasting days flie on with full career, But my late spring no bud or blossom shewth. Perhaps my semblance might decieve the truth, That I to manhood am arrivd so near, And inward ripeness doth much less appear, That some more timely happy spirits induth, yet it be less or more, or soon or slow, It shall be still in strictest measure even To that same lot, however mean or high, Towards which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven, All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever my great task Masters eye.' (Sonnet VII, On his being arrived to his 23rd year).