| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Song: ‘Ah, fading joy! how quickly art thou past!’ | | By John Dryden (1631–1700) |
| | | AH, 1 fading joy! how quickly art thou past! | |
| Yet we thy ruin haste. | |
| As if the cares of human life were few, | |
| We seek out new: | |
| And follow fate that does too fast pursue. | 5 |
| |
| See how on every bough the birds express | |
| In their sweet notes their happiness. | |
| They all enjoy and nothing spare, | |
| But on their mother nature lay their care: | |
| Why then should man, the lord of all below, | 10 |
| Such troubles choose to know | |
| As none of all his subjects undergo? | |
| |
| Hark, hark, the waters fall, fall, fall, | |
| And with a murmuring sound | |
| Dash, dash, upon the ground, | 15 |
| To gentle slumbers call. | |
|
|
|
