time present and time past...

BUIRNT NORTON(No. 1 of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot
I
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 openedInto the rose-garden.

My words echoThus, in your mind.