The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Granville, Lord Lansdowne/27
MEDITATION ON DEATH.
I.
Enough, enough, my Soul! of worldly noiſe,
Os aëry pomps and fleeting joys.
What does this buſy world provide at beſt
But brittle goods that break like glaſs;
But poiſon’d sweets, a troubled feaſt,5
And pleaſures like the winds, that in a moment paſs?
Thy thoughts to nobler meditations give,
And ſtudy how to die, not how to live.
II.
How frail is beauty! ah! how vain,
And how ſhort-liv’d, those glories are10
That vex our nights and days with pain,
And break our hearts with care!
In duſt we no diſtinction ſee:
Such Helen is, ſuch, Mira! thou must be.
III.
How ſhort is life! why will vain courtiers toil,15
And crowd a vainer monarch for a ſmile?
What is that monarch but a mortal man,
His crown a pageant, and his life a ſpan?
With all his guards and his dominions he
Muſt ſicken too, and die as well as we.20
IV.
Thoſe boaſted names of conquerors and kings
Are ſwallow’d, and become forgotten things:
One deſtin’d period men in common have,
The great, the baſe, the coward, and the brave,
All food alike for worms, companions in the grave.25
The prince and paraſite together lie:
No fortune can exalt but Death will climb as high.27