| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | IV. Calvus | | By Thomas Wade (1805–1875) |
| | | BOLD mortal! thou dost ape the skeleton | |
| That satirizes man and all his doings | |
| From every opened grave; and shouldst seem one, | |
| But for the glow-worm which is in thine eyes, | |
| And certain airs that from thy lips arise: | 5 |
| Why, now to see thee at thine amorous cooings, | |
| Or gravely preaching immortality, | |
| To which thy living death’s-head gives the lie, | |
| Would make the shadow that all life receiveth | |
| Shake his dim sides with horrible derision. | 10 |
| Tell us, old Calvus! what about thee cleaveth, | |
| To make distinction still between the vision | |
| Of a death’s-head and thine? Get thee false hair, | |
| For thy sole privilege to upper air. | | | | |
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