T.S. Eliot
     Burnt Norton
     (No. 1 of 'Four Quartets')
  

     Time present and time past
     Are both perhaps present in time future,
     And time future contained in time past.
     If all time is eternally present
     All time is unredeemable.
     What might have been is an abstraction
     Remaining a perpetual possibility
     Only in a world of speculation.
     What might have been and what has been
     Point to one end, which is always present.
     Footfalls echo in the memory
     Down the passage which we did not take
     Towards the door we never opened
     Into the rose-garden. My words echo
     Thus, in your mind.
                              But to what purpose
     Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
     I do not know.
                        Other echoes
     Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
     Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
     Round the corner. Through the first gate,
     Into our first world, shall we follow
     The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
     There they were, dignified, invisible,
     Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
     In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
     And the bird called, in response to
     The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
     And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
     Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
     There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.  
     So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
     Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
     To look down into the drained pool.
     Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
     And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
     And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
     The surface glittered out of heart of light,
     And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
     Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
     Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
     Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
     Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
     Cannot bear very much reality.
     Time past and time future
     What might have been and what has been
     Point to one end, which is always present.