The future but a length behind the past,
So swift are years.
* * * *
Thy teeth, devouring Time! thine, envious Age!
On things below still exercise your rage;
With venom’d grinders you corrupt your meat,
And then, at ling’ring meals, the morsels eat.
The comparison to a river is more amply developed by a modern poet:
The lapse of time and rivers is the same:
Both speed their journey with a restless stream;