Classic Poem

To know the origin from whence you came,
And the frail fashion of this human frame,
Pause o'er those monuments with pensive eye,
Where purpled tyrants, proud oppressors lie;
All who could boast wealth, wisdom, beauty, birth,
Here meet, and mingle with one common earth:
Yet these no bright accomplishments could save
From Fate's dread sentence to the gloomy grave:
There while you read the frailty of your frame,
Learn from what vile original you came.