Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | V. Death and Bereavement | | On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey | | Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) |
| | | MORTALITY, behold and fear | |
| What a change of flesh is here! | |
| Think how many royal bones | |
| Sleep within these heaps of stones; | |
| Here they lie, had realms and lands, | 5 |
| Who now want strength to stir their hands, | |
| Where from their pulpits sealed with dust | |
| They preach, “In greatness is no trust.” | |
| Here ’s an acre sown indeed | |
| With the richest royallest seed | 10 |
| That the earth did e’er suck in | |
| Since the first man died for sin: | |
| Here the bones of birth have cried | |
| “Though gods they were, as men they died!” | |
| Here are sands, ignoble things, | 15 |
| Dropt from the ruined sides of kings: | |
| Here ’s a world of pomp and state | |
| Buried in dust, once dead by fate. | | | | |
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