Time, Real and Imaginary

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772 to 1834

Poem Image

On the wide level of a mountain’s head,
(I knew not where, but ‘twas some fairy place)
Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread,
Two lovely children run an endless race,
       A sister and a brother!
       This far outstripp’d the other;
   Yet ever runs she with reverted face,
   And looks and listens for the boy behind:
       For he, alas! is blind!
O’er rough and smooth with even step he passed,
And knows not whether he be first or last.