Francis Beaumont. 1586-1616
234. On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey
1 min to read
118 words

MORTALITY, behold and fear! What a change of flesh is here! Think how many royal bones Sleep within this heap of stones: Here they lie had realms and lands, Who now want strength to stir their hands: Where from their pulpits seal'd with dust They preach, 'In greatness is no trust.' Here 's an acre sown indeed With the richest, royall'st seed 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, Dropt from the ruin'd sides of kings; Here 's a world of pomp and state, Buried in dust, once dead by fate.

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John Ford. 1586-1639
235. Dawn
1 min to read
56 words
Return to The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900






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