Like shadows gliding over the plain

Verse 1

Like shadows gliding o'er the plain, Or clouds that roll successive on, Man's busy generations pass, And while we gaze, their forms are gone.

Verse 2

We live, we die: behold the sum Of good or ill on life's fair page; Alike in God's all-seeing eye, The infant's day, the patriarch's age.

Verse 3

O Father, in whose mighty hand The boundless years and ages lie, Teach us thy boon of life to prize, And use the moments as they fly.