All My Past Life ~John Wilmot

All my past life is mine no more,

The flying hours are gone,

Like transitory dreams given o’er,

Whose images are kept in store

By memory alone.

What ever is to come is not,

How can it then be mine?

The present moment’s all my lot,

And that as fast as it is got,Phyllis, is wholly thine.

Then talk not of inconstancy,

False hearts, and broken vows,Ii, by miracle, can be,

This live-long minute true to thee,’

Tis all that heaven allows.

~ All My Past Life… – John Wilmot

Written 1789