Πάντα ῥεῖ· οὐδὲν μένει

Upon the water, in the boat, I sit and sketch as down I float: The stream is wide, the view is fair, I sketch it looking backward there. The stream is strong, and as I sit And view the picture that we quit, It flows and flows, and bears the boat, And I sit sketching as we float.

Each pointed height, each wavy line, To new and other forms combine; Proportions vary, colours fade, And all the landscape is remade.

Depicted neither far nor near, And larger there and smaller here, And varying down from old to new, E’en I can hardly think it true.

Yet still I look, and still I sit, Adjusting, shaping, altering it; And still the current bears the boat And me, still sketching as I float.

Still as I sit, with something new The foreground intercepts my view; Even the distant mountain range From the first moment suffers change.