<P> The line "deserts of vast eternity" is used in the novel Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf, which was published in 1928 . </P> <P> Archibald MacLeish's poem "You, Andrew Marvell", alludes to the passage of time and to the growth and decline of empires . In his poem, the speaker, lying on the ground at sunset, feels "the rising of the night". He visualizes sunset, moving from east to west geographically, overtaking the great civilizations of the past, and feels "how swift how secretly / The shadow of the night comes on ." </P> <P> B.F. Skinner quotes "But at my back I always hear / Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near", through his character Professor Burris in Walden Two, who is in a confused mood of desperation, lack of orientation, irresolution and indecision . (Prentice Hall 1976, Chapter 31, p. 266). This line is also quoted in Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, as in Arthur C. Clarke's short story, The Ultimate Melody . </P> <P> The same line appears in full in the opening minutes of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), spoken by the protagonist, pilot and poet Peter Carter:' But at my back I always hear / Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie / Deserts of vast eternity . Andy Marvell, What a Marvel' . </P>

And yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity meaning