What man is he that yearneth For length unmeasured of days? Folly mine eye discerneth Encompassing all his ways. For years over-running the measure Shall change thee in evil wise: Grief drawth nigh thee; and pleasure, Behold, it is hid from thine eyes. This to their wage have they Which overlive their day. And He that looseth from labour Doth one with other befriend, Whom bride nor bridesmen attend, Song, nor sound of the tabor, Death, that maketh an end. Thy portion esteem I highest, Who wast not ever begot; Thine next, being born who diest And straightaway again art not. With follies light as the feather Doth Youth to man befall; Then evils gather together, There wants not one of them all - Wrath, envy, discord, strife, The sword that seeketh life. And sealing the sum of trouble Doth tottering Age draws nigh, Whom friends and kinsfolk fly, Age, upon whom redouble All sorrows under the sky. This man, as me, even so, Have the evil days overtaken; And like as a cape sea-shaken With tempest at earth's last verges And shock of all winds that blow, His head the seas of woe, The thunders of awful surges Ruining overflow; Blown from the fall of even, Blown from the dayspring forth, Blown from the noon in heaven, Blown from night and the North. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 30 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI AN HYMN TO THE EVENING by PHILLIS WHEATLEY THE TWO TREES by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS ON VENUS ARISING FROM THE SEA by ANTIPATER OF SIDON TO THE NECROPHILE by WALTER CONRAD ARENSBERG EPITAPH ON THE SECRETARY TO THE MUSES by JANE BARKER WINTER: EAST ANGLIA by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE ELDER WOMAN'S SONG: 3, FR. KING LEAR'S WIFE by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |