| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | The World’s Treasures | | By Edward Moore (1712–1757) |
| | | STRUCTURES, raised by morning dreams, | |
| Sands, that trip the flitting streams, | |
| Down, that anchors on the air, | |
| Clouds, that paint their changes there. | |
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| Seas, that smoothly dimpling lie, | 5 |
| While the storm impends from high, | |
| Showing, in an obvious glass, | |
| Joys, that in possession pass. | |
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| Transient, fickle, light and gay, | |
| Flatt’ring only to betray; | 10 |
| What, alas, can life contain! | |
| Life, like all its circles—vain! | |
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| Will the stork, intending rest, | |
| On the billow build her nest? | |
| Will the bee demand her store | 15 |
| From the bleak and bladeless shore? | |
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| Man alone, intent to stray, | |
| Ever turns from wisdom’s way; | |
| Lays up wealth in foreign land, | |
| Sows the sea, and ploughs the sand. | 20 | | | |
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