Sonnet Vii: How Soon Hath Time, The Subtle Thief Of Youth Poem by John Milton

Sonnet Vii: How Soon Hath Time, The Subtle Thief Of Youth

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How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on wtih full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived so near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven;
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Gangadharan Nair Pulingat 23 January 2015

Great poem of a great poet in history and his feelings very beautifully narrated in the poem and likes it very much.

8 3 Reply
John Richter 23 January 2015

Absolutely stunning.... 'Time - that subtle robber of youth'.... How quaint it is that those from centuries ago felt the same as we...

5 4 Reply
Savita Tyagi 24 February 2020

Time the subtle thief of youth. It robs us with our eyes open making us feel most helpless. Great sonnet!

0 0 Reply
Richard 10 January 2018

Nice poem, I liked the words. Is Taskmaster a reference to the show on telly?

2 3 Reply
Prabhata Kumar Sahoo 13 April 2017

This is a good poem we read since long.

2 2 Reply
Susan Williams 15 October 2015

Time. Milton is talking about a universal theme of humanity. The passing of time. The fleeting nature of time. What does our life matter in the end? The same haunting questions that affect people who lived hundreds of years before Milton and people today. How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth/Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

27 2 Reply
Babatunde Aremu 23 January 2015

This poem describe what we experience in our lives. Time just tick away, so is our transition from stages of life

8 3 Reply
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John Milton

John Milton

London, England
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