“I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street . . . ”
 
But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
“O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time . . . “
 
“As I Walked Out One Evening”
W. H. Auden