Fates Warning - Time Long Past

Old man time, Wisdom and Rhyme
Seeker of reason, reaper of time
Born to a spell he walks the beaten path
To hell, rusty shackles of time burden his mind
Once on his side time turns to defy.
In a flash of the lightning he's come and gone.
The clock strikes the hours, he climbs to the belfry
As he's done a thousand hours before.

Many dark years, not a vacant hour through
War and fear had the bell been ever strayed,
Hypnotized rhythmic pendulum synchronized
With the beat of the old man's heart.
Man or machine he's living a dream