Nature

Vanitas Vanitatum

by John Webster d. 1638?

From Lyrics from the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1889)

Nature

All the flowers of the spring
Meet to perfume our burying;
These have but their growing prime,
And man does flourish but his time:
Survey our progress from our birth;
We are set, we grow, we turn to earth.
Courts adieu, and all delights,
All bewitching appetites!
Sweetest breath and clearest eye,
Like perfumes, go out and die;
And consequently this is done
As shadows wait upon the sun.
Vain the ambition of kings
Who seek by trophies and dead things
To leave a living name behind,
And weave but nets to catch the wind.

MLA

Webster, John. “Vanitas Vanitatum.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/webster/2/.

Chicago

Webster, John. “Vanitas Vanitatum.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/webster/2/.

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