ALTHO’ to man’s aspiring pride,
It may appear degrading;
Yet look on all the world around,
And say what pleasure may be found,
What joy that is not fading.
Say ye who boast your stores of wealth,
Each future joy believing;
Say are ye certain of the hour,
That shall mature the cherish’d flower,
Your fond hopes now deceiving.
No, tho’ secure in health ye bloom,
That transient bloom is flying;
And yet ye feel a calm repose,
And, lull’d by opiates, wealth bestows,
Ye live while ye are dying.
And you who taste the sweets of love,
Your present bliss enjoying;
Know that while pleasure spreads her sail,
Some latent grief she may entail,
Your future peace destroying.
Oh how the mind with rapture swells,
Some fancied good possessing;
Yet while the cherish’d flow’r we clasp,
It fades within our eager grasp,
And we resign the blessing.
Day’s golden throne of glorious light,
Dim night is fast invading;
The smiling monarch of the skies,
His wonted beams of light denies,
Those beams to us are fading.
The trees now gay in verdure dress’d,
In summer’s garb appearing;
Shall soon their leafy honours cast,
And stand on winter’s desert waste,
Their naked branches rearing.
Yet think not that his transient joys,
To man are so degrading;
They only serve our faith to prove,
Since heaven reserves in realms above,
Pure joys that are not fading.
Behold yon streamlet gliding by,
Whose waves are onward moving;
That image to the mind should be,
A spur to inactivity,
Each sluggish soul reproving.
Since on an ever flowing tide,
These forms are swiftly sailing;
Let not the spirit lag behind,
For life’s frail cords that stay the mind,
May even now be failing.
(Elizabeth Bath)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, World Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Mind Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Nature Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Flowers Poems, Smiling PoemsBased on Keywords: reproving, entail, degrading, reserves, opiates