Had I but lived a hundred years ago
I might have gone, as I have gone this year
By Warmwell Cross on to a Cove I know
And Time have placed his finger on me there:

"You see that man?" — I might have looked, and said
"O yes: I see him. One that boat has brought
Which dropped down Channel round Saint Alban's Head
So commonplace a youth calls not my thought."

"You see that man?" — "Why yes; I told you; yes:
Of an idling town-sort; thin; hair brown in hue;
And as the evening light scants less and less
He looks up at a star, as many do."

"You see that man?" — "Nay, leave me!" then I plead
"I have fifteen miles to vamp across the lеa
And it grows dark, and I am weary-kneed:
I have said the third timе; yes, that man I see!"

"Good. That man goes to Rome — to death, despair;
And no one notes him now but you and I:
A hundred years, and the world will follow him there
And bend with reverence where his ashes lie."