Across the tide of time

Abstract

The leitmotif of the poems collected in Clavichords is time - a subject that has fascinated scientists, philosophers, mythologists, the authors of sacred texts and, naturally, poets. Shakespeare compares time to a devouring cormorant (Love's Labours Lost), an 'abysm' (The Tempest), and a bald sexton (King John). He calls time a 'common arbitrator' (Troilus and Cressida) and refers to its 'thievish progress to eternity' (Sonnet 77). Famously he sees Macbeth standing on its 'bank and shoal', wishing that with just one blow he could 'jump the life to come.' For Marcus Aurelius time is 'a violent torrent' and every instant 'a pinprick of eternity'. Ovid called time 'the devourer of everything', Milton 'the subtle thief of youth' and 'our tedious song', Bacon 'the great innovator', Disraeli 'the great physician'. Marvel spoke of time's 'winged chariot', Donne of 'the rags of time', Dryden of 'unthinking time', Keats of 'aching time', and Tennyson of time's 'stretched forefinger'. Opening Clavichords on any page one is likely to come across some reference, explicit or implicit, to the passage of time, the relation between past, present and future, the traces left by time on memory and the physical environment, the brevity of human life spans, death, eternity, and so on. The metaphors used by the poet to describe time include 'the mists of time', 'the tide of time', 'time's shadows', 'the quicksand of time', 'the hourglass of time', 'depthless time', 'the stallion ride of time', 'the shadow land of time', 'the rings of time', 'thresholds of time', 'the hidden passageways of time', 'the looking glass of time', 'the cavities of time', 'the constellations of time', 'the seasons of recurring time', 'time prints in the sand', 'the cages of time', 'the abyss of time', 'amniotic time', 'this savannah of timelessness', 'time's shadowed mantle', 'unchartered time', 'frozen time frame', 'time's passage', 'the bridge of time', 'youth's ravished time', 'the spheres of time', 'washed by time', 'the chequerboard of time', and 'realms of reversed time'.