The World's Reward

A gallant knight lay long ago
Sick in his bed; his end was near,
When to his side a lady came,
So fair, he deemed earth could not show
Among all womankind her peer;
He never saw a fairer dame.
She stood and spoke to him:—"Fair knight,
Now tell me how I please thy sight!
Thou, all the days thou drewest breath,
Hast served me well: now am I come and will reward thee after death."

Gold was her crown; fair pearls were spread
O'er dress and brooch and girdle, too.
Then spake he:—"Lady, who art thou?"
"I am the World," to him she said.
"Thou from behind my form shalt view;
Lo, this reward I bring thee now!"
Her back all bare of flesh she showed,
Where clustered many a worm and toad;
And like a carrion dog it stank.
"Alas!" he cried, "that e'er thou hadst service of mine!" and wept and shrank.

This Lady if ye have not known,
On the World's vassals cast your eye,
See how, grown old in years, they fare!
One's gray, one's blind, a beggar one;
Old men on crutches, see, pass by!
A violent sway the World doth bear,
Cruel and wrong (alas the day!)
Life, soul, and honour lost for aye.
Wife, children, friends, and all his store
The World doth steal, and to the grave sends him with one poor cloth, no more!

And when his friends have buried him.
The World comes straightway there, to bring
The guerdon seen of that good knight.
The toads and worms from every limb
Eat skin and flesh and everything
To the bare bone. Now mark this right!
Go to the churchyard; see the end
Of him ye call your kinsman, friend!
Wealth, beauty, pomp, where are they flown?
Athwart the rich man's mouth, behold, the World hath laid a beggar's bone!

Then haste, for Death draws day by day
A full stage nearer, marching on
Without a pause towards us so!
For all of us he blocks the way,
Leaving us free two paths alone—
To bliss or everlasting woe.
Ye sinners, pray with one accord
To the pure Maid who bore our Lord
In sinless, painless birth, that she
May help us to the path that leads to bliss in all eternity!