quote · Legacy record
Why should man’s high aspiring mind Burn in him, with so proud a breath: When all his haughty views can find In this world, yields to death; The fair, the brave, the vain, the wise, The rich, the poor, the great, and small, Are each, but worm’s anatomies, To strew his quiet hall. Power may make many earthly gods, Where gold, and bribery’s guilt, prevails; But death’s unwelcome honest odds, Kicks o’er the unequal scales. The flatter’d great, may clamours raise Of power,—and their own weakness hide; But death shall find unlooked-for ways To end the farce of pride. Death levels all things, in his march Nought can resist his mighty strength; The palace proud,—triumphal arch, Shall mete their shadow’s length: The rich, the poor, one common bed Shall find, in the unhonoured grave, Where weeds shall crown alike the head Of tyrant, and of slave.
Why should man’s high aspiring mind Burn in him, with so proud a breath: When all his haughty views can find In this world, yields to death; The fair, the brave, the vain, the wise, The rich, the poor, the great, and small, Are each, but worm’s anatomies, To strew his quiet hall. Power may make many earthly gods, Where gold, and bribery’s guilt, prevails; But death’s unwelcome honest odds, Kicks o’er the unequal scales. The flatter’d great, may clamours raise Of power,—and their own weakness hide; But death shall find unlooked-for ways To end the farce of pride. Death levels all things, in his march Nought can resist his mighty strength; The palace proud,—triumphal arch, Shall mete their shadow’s length: The rich, the poor, one common bed Shall find, in the unhonoured grave, Where weeds shall crown alike the head Of tyrant, and of slave.
Approximate author period: c. 1649 AD · renaissance
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Andrew Marvell
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1649 AD · renaissance
author lifetime midpoint (1620–1678)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 170 · printed citation: Andrew Marvell · subject: DEATH
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