I came across this poem in Ever After by Graham Swift. He omitted the last two lines, a cut that makes a lot of sense to me, avoiding the belief in God and the repetition of grave and dust. Indeed, it makes so much sense to me that the poem below is the cut poem, with the full poem below that.

The poem makes such a simple, straightforward, important point with such beautiful economy of language that I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know it. I guessed that it must be by Shakespeare. I was right at least that it is Elizabethan. The poem is “attributed to” Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), and may have been his epitaph.

Even Such Is Time by Walter Raleigh (cut)

Even such is time, that takes in trust

Our youth, our joys, our all we have,

And pays us but with age and dust;

Who, in the dark and silent grave,

When we have wandered all our ways,

Shuts up the story of our days.

Even Such Is Time by Walter Raleigh (full)

Even such is time, that takes in trust

Our youth, our joys, our all we have,

And pays us but with age and dust;

Who, in the dark and silent grave,

When we have wandered all our ways,

Shuts up the story of our days.

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,

My God shall raise me up, I trust.