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This collection oscillates between varieties. Most are heavy with Greek names/references. But maybe 1/5 have references to a man seeking another man. These gay references were usually about a love denied, with strong closeted feelings. Just longing for someone from a distance, or maybe a brief touch in a market.

My second reading focused on the pages/poems I highlighted below. Beautiful heartaches here.

Listen to this closeted feeling in "September 1903"

At least let me now beguile myself with false hopes;
and so not notice my empty life.

And so many times I was so close.
And how I froze, how I recoiled, afraid;
why stop, with my lips closed;
and have my empty life weep inside me,
and my longing put on mourning black?

To be close so many times
to the erotic eyes, the lips,
to the dreamsought, the beloved body.
To be close so many times.


Talking about the 'view' of one man toward another...:
Last stanza from "Days of 1908"

Your view has kept him what he was
when he took them off, when he cast them from him,
those unworthy clothes, that underwear in patches.
He stood then naked everywhere;
flawless in beauty; a miracle.
His uncombed hair upswept; his limbs touched sun-dark
from his morning naked at the baths and on the beach.


Most of these speak of the object of admiration being from a simple life, with simple clothes, in their mid to late 20's, simply being quietly beautiful by existing.

Here is the book namesake:
"Before Time Could Change Them"

Great sorrow and regret overcame them on their separation.
It wasn't their desire; it was circumstances.
The need one had to earn his living
made him go far away - New York or Canada.
Their love, of course, was not the love they'd started with;
the attraction holding them by slow degrees had waned,
the attraction had waned to a great degree.
But that they should separate, that wasn't their desire.
It was circumstances. - Or perhaps Fortune
came on the scene as artiest, separating them now,
before their feeling could vanish before Time could change them;
the one will seem eternally what he was to the other -
a twenty-four year old; a young, a handsome man.


Damn! Heartache here that can take an entire book to tell!

I liked this laid-back discreet tone of these early 20th century poems. I would like these in their own collection, since the other poems in this book with their high number of Greek name references went way over my head.

My 5* gay collection would include:
page - poem
13 - As Long as You Can
50 - Understanding
84 - An Old Man
103 - The Afternoon Sun
104 - To Abide
106 - Imenos
107 - From the ship
126 - Craftsman of Winebowls
129 - In an Old Book
130 - Desperation
135 - Before Time Could Change Them
136 - He Came to Read
141 - The 25th year of his Life
143 - In the Dull and Gloomy Village
148 - In the Wineshops
150 Sophist Departing from Syria
153 - Days of 1896
154 - Two Young Men, 23 to 24 Years Old
157 - Days of 1901
159 - A Young Man, a Writer - in His 24th Year
161 - Picture of a Young Man, Twenty-three, Done by His Friend of the Same Age, an Amateur
165 - Kimon, Son of Learchos, Age 22, Student of Greek Literature (in Kyini)
167 - Days of 1909, '10, and '11
168 - Myris: Alexandria, 340 AD
172 - Flowers White and Beautiful, as Were Most Becoming
175 - The Mirror in the Vestibule
176 - He Asked about the Quality
180 - Following the Formulas of Ancient Greco-Syrian Magicians
183 - Days of 1908
197 - Stephanos Skilitsis
251 - September 1903
252 - December 1903
253 - January 1904
254 - On the Stairs
255 - At the Theater
258 - 27 June 1906, 2 pm
259 - Hidden Things
362 - So
267 - Half an Hour
271 - The Bandaged Shoulder
274 - From the Drawer

This is a solid 5* collection for me. I'm glad I found this used book to buy so I can circle these pages and stick exclusively to this collection when I pull this from my shelf in the future.