The Introit
Let from its dream the soul awaken,
And reason mark with open eyes
The scene unfolding,-
How lightly life away is taken,
How cometh Death in stealthy guise,-
At last beholding;
What swiftness hath the flight of pleasure
That, once attained, seems nothing more
Than respite cold;
How fain is memory to measure
Each latter day inferior
To those of old.
Beholding how each instant flies
So swift, that, as we count, ’tis gone
Beyond recover,
Let us resolve to be more wise
Than stake our future lot upon
What soon is over.
Let none be self-deluding, none,-
Imagining some longer stay
For his own treasure
Than what today he sees undone;
For everything must pass away
In equal measure.
Our lives are fated as the rivers
That gather downward to the sea
We know as Death;
And thither every flood delivers
The pride and pomp of seigniory
That forfeiteth;
Thither, the rivers in their splendor;
Thither, the streams of modest worth,-
The rills beside them;
Till there all equal they surrender;
And so with those who toil on earth,
And those who guide them.
The Invocation
I turn me from the praise and singing
Of panegyrists, and the proud
Old poets’ stories;
I would not have them hither bringing
Their artful potions that but cloud
His honest glories;
On Him Alone I lay my burden-
Him only do I now implore
In my distress,-
Who came on earth and had for guerdon
The scorn of man that did ignore
His Godliness.
This world is but a highway going
Unto that other, the abode
Without a sorrow;
The wise are they who gird them, knowing
The guideposts set along that road
Unto tomorrow.
We start with birth upon that questing;
We journey all the while we live,
Our goal attaining
The day alone that brings us resting,
When Death shall last qui
(Jorge Manrique)
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