"The Sun-Dial At Wells College"

The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past:
Before it, sleeps the unborn hour
In darkness, and beyond thy power:
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine:
One hour alone is in thy hands,--
The NOW on which the shadow stands.

A poem which appears on a sun-dial at Wells College in New York State, USA, written by Henry van Dyke (1852 - 1933)


This sun-dial is on the side of a Grade II listed building in Blucher Street, Chesham, which stands in a tiny cobbled courtyard.  It was renovated a few years ago, but before that some of the wall was covered in ivy and the sun-dial was in a scruffy state.  There was just enough feeble sunshine to cast a slight shadow when I took the photo a little before 4 o'clock.