Outside Influences – On Time by John Milton
09/17/2014 01:34 a.m.


"On Time"
by John Milton
1608–1674

FLY, envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets' pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb'd,
And last of all, thy greedy self consum'd,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss;
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine
About the supreme Throne
Of Him, t'whose happy-making sight alone,
When once our heav'nly-guided soul shall climb,
Then all this earthly grossness quit,
Attir'd with Stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.


I discovered the above poem by chance, as it is recited in its entirety
in the opening of the video game: Silent Hunter, Wolves Of The Pacific,
one of the latest in an evolution of submarine simulations.

Although written in 1645, Milton’s words are chillingly appropriate
for the program, in summing up the collective spirit of those who served
in America’s ‘Silent Service’ during World War II.