THE PARADOX.
Reading edition
I wish that the day were over, The week, the month and the year; Yet life is not such a burden That I wish the end were near. And my birthdays come so swiftly That I meet them grudgingly: Would it be so were I longing For the life that is to be? Nay: the soul, though ever reaching For that which is out of sight, Yet soars with reluctant motion, Since there is no backward flight.
CHARLOTTE F. BATES.