Classic Poem

Part I.

A LL you who dwell upon the foodful earth,
Both rich and poor, of base and noble birth,
Attend; my tongue deep wisdom shall impart,
And knowledge from the fountain of my heart.
I unto light dark parables will bring,
And to my solemn harp enigmas sing.
In misery and age why should I fear,
When sin pursues my steps and death draws near?
O you, who riches as your god adore,
And glory in your scarce possessed store,
Who can redeem his brother for one day,
Or to the Lord his high-prais'd ransom pay?
(For O, not all the gold which streams conceal,
Or hills enclose, can banish'd life repeal,)
That he might live unto eternity,
Nor in the earth's corrupting entrails lie.
They see the wise, and fools, to death descend,
While others their congested treasures spend:
Yet hoping to perpetuate their fame,
Proud structures raise, and call them by their name.

Part II.

But man in honour is a vanity
That fleets away and as a beast must die;
In this vain course they circularly move,
And their posterity their words approve;
Death shall as sheep devour them in the dust,
Till that great day subject them to the just.
Their strength and beauty shall to nothing waste,
All naked from their sumptuous houses cast.
But God shall from the greedy sepulchre
My soul redeem, and to His joys prefer.
Despair not when a man grows opulent,
And that the glories of his house augment.
For with his thread of life his riches end,
Nor shall his honours with his soul descend.
Though here he live in luxury and ease,
And those are prais'd, who their own genius please,
Yet as his fathers he shall set in night,
Nor ever rise to see the cheerful light.
Man high in honour, whose ignoble breast
No knowledge holds, shall perish like a beast.