| Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845. | | | | The Dignity of Man | | VII. Sir John Davies |
| | | O! WHAT is man, great Maker of mankind! | |
| That thou to him so great respect dost beare; | |
| That thou adornst him with so bright a mind, | |
| Mak’st him a king, and euen an angels’ peere? | |
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| O! what a liuelie life, what heauenly power, | 5 |
| What spreading vertue, what a sparkling fire, | |
| How great, how plentifull, how rich a dowre, | |
| Dost thou within this dying flesh inspire! | |
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| Thou leau’st thy print in other workes of thine, | |
| But thy whole image thou in man hast writ: | 10 |
| There cannot be a creature more diuine, | |
| Except, like thee, it should be infinit. | |
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| But it exceeds man’s thought to thinke how high | |
| God hath raisd man, since God a man became: | |
| The angels doe admire this mysterie, | 15 |
| And are astonisht when they view the same. | |
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| Nor hath he giuen these blessings for a day, | |
| Nor made them on the bodie’s life depend: | |
| The soule, though made in time, suruiues for aye; | |
| And though it hath beginning, sees no end. | 20 | | | |
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