Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

Our Pleasures Are Vanities

XXXI. D. Sand

BEHOLD the blast which blowes

The blossomes from the tree,

The end whereof consumes

And comes to nought, we see.

Ere thou therefore be blowen

From life that may not last,

Begin for grace to call

For time mispent and past.

Haue mind on brittle life,

Whose pleasures are but vayne;

On death likewyse bethinke,

How thou maiest not remaine.

And feare thy Lord to greeue,

Which sought thy soule to saue;

To synne no more be bent,

But mercie aske and haue.

For death, who dooth not spare

The kinges on earth to kill,

Shall reape also from thee

Thy pleasure, life, and will.

That lyfe which yet remaynes,

And in thy brest appeares,

Hath sowne in thee sutch seedes,

You ought to weede with teares.

And life that shall succeede,

When death is worne and past,

Shall spring for euer then

In ioy or paine to last.

Where death on life hath power,

Ye see that life also

Hath mowen the fruites of death,

Which neuer more shall growe.