Poems By Milton (John Milton)

The poet contrasts Time’s rapid flight with the slow movement of hours and clock-work to show how impatient and destructive Time seems. By calling the hours “lazy” and “leaden-stepping” and comparing them to the slow pace of a plummet, Milton suggests that Time may move on and consume what is false and mortal, but it cannot touch what is truly good and eternal.

The temporal is associated with what is false and vain, mortal dross, bad things, Death, and Chance. The eternal is associated with Truth, Peace, Love, Joy, Eternity, and what is sincerely good and perfectly divine.

Human souls are guided towards divinity by being heav’nly guided and by the sight of him on the supreme Throne—that is, God. The final winner in the race against Time is humanity with eternal bliss; the poem says we shall triumph over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.

Milton feels a stone monument is unnecessary because Shakespeare has already built himself a “live-long Monument” through his poetry. His works have won such admiration that they preserve his name and fame more lasting than stone could.