Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/279

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A TESTIMONY.
251
The earth is fattened with our dead;
She swallows more and doth not cease;
Therefore her wine and oil increase
And her sheaves are not numbered;
Therefore her plants are green, and all
Her pleasant trees lusty and tall.

Therefore the maidens cease to sing.
And the young men are very sad:
Therefore the sowing is not glad,
And mournful is the harvesting.
Of high and low, of great and small,
Vanity is the lot of all.

A King dwelt in Jerusalem;
He was the wisest man on earth;
He had all riches from his birth.
And pleasures till he tired of them;
Then, having tested all things, he
Witnessed that all are vanity.