The Steeds of Time

The Steeds of Time

The Steeds of Time course on. No flick of spurs.
Nor curb of bits, can change their rhythmic stride.
The silent hoofs of these staid voyageurs
Turn not aside upon their cosmic ride.

No mortal mind can think, nor tongue can say,
How long the Steeds of Time have trod the way;
Nor whence they came, nor where their quest may lie.
But hoof-prints in the sky point out their path
Along the Milky Way; past coal-sacks wrapt
In deepest mystery; through nebulae
So faint no human eye can classify
The dappled flecks as stars. And yet each speck
Is but a tally-mark of aeons lapsed
Since Chaos saw the Steeds of Time pass by.

Sir Knight, Mortimer E. Cooley
Dean Emeritus of Michigan School of Engineering
Ann Arbor, Michigan
January 1933