Importance Of A Minute

 Importance of A Minute
by Benjamin Reynolds Bulkeley

'Twas only a minute that would not stay,

But how many noticed its flight?

And yet for one it parted the way,

Betwixt life's bloom and its blight.

It pointed the new-born baby's breath,

First felt on the mother's breast;

For another it sounded the summons of death

And weary one gone to his rest.

At that moment two souls were together wed

Till death should call them apart;

Another to virtue bowed his head

And consecrated his heart.

Ah! big was the moment that flitted away,

And hardly one noticed its flight;

And hundreds of minutes make up the day,

And hundreds are lost in the night.