“If you trap the moment before it's ripe,
The tears of repentance you'll certainly wipe;
But if once you let the ripe moment go
You can never wipe off the tears of woe.”

If You Trap the Moment
1790s, Poems from Blake's Notebook (c. 1791-1792)

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William Blake 249
English Romantic poet and artist 1757–1827

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