The spectacle moved one of them, Prince Michael, heir to the throne of the Electorate of Valleluna, in O.
Henry's "The Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock," to pessimistic utterance.
"Clocks," he said, "are shackles on the feet of mankind.

I have observed you looking persistently at that clock.

Its face is that of a tyrant, its numbers are false as those on a lottery ticket; its hands are those of a bunco-steerer, who makes an appointment with you to your ruin.

Let me entreat you to throw off its humiliating bonds and to cease to order your affairs by that insensate monitor of brass and steel." Sang Sara Teasdale: "We walked together in the dusk To watch the tower grow dimly white, And saw it lift against the sky, Its flower of amber light.".