I'm curious about what you think about the hard "T" and stress of "Time" in the second line. In my ear the contrast between the opening "O" sound and the sort of brings you up short sound of "Time" seems rather harsh. There is no other word that will work here, and although he does mantain the rythym of the verse, the hard "T" silibant "S" and then hard "K" of that second line seem odd. My sense of english is warped by my "Joisey" upbringing and the soft County Cork brogue of my Grandmother, which was the strongest sound of my early years, so myabe I'm just hearing it oddly...?

On love, on grief, on every human thing,
Time sprinkles Lethe's water with his wing.

A pleasure to speak about words and their sounds with someone from New Jersey, the Best State. And thank you, OneArt, for your high-grade attention here.

Part of the pleasure, part of the interest and play in poetry, is the interplay of accidents-- the sounds that have become attached to meanings in a given language at a given time-- and intentions or meanings. A poem like Landor's arranges the somewhat accidental or arbitrary grunts of meaning, so that they become part of the meaning, part of the feeling.

Which each reader will perceive a little differently. To my ear, in a poem so rich in like sounds of vowel and consonant that it could get too rich, it is pleasing--and expressive-- that "Time" contains vowels and consonants unlike the other words.

At a certain point, there's more to a work of art than anyone can talk about. I hope I am not going beyond that point! But "Time"-- primary concept in the poem, and first word in its clinching line-- stands out in a way that is appropriate.

In writing (and probably dance, music, film), the texture can get too rich, and clog or cloy a bit. In this case, the word that is "harsh" (as you say) is appropriately so.