222
Poems on
A Stream, that silently but swiftly glides
To meet Eternity's immeasur'd Tydes!
A Being, lost alike by Pain or Joy!
A Fly can kill it, or a Worm destroy!
Impair'd by Labour, and by Ease undone,
Commenc'd in Tears, and ended in a Groan!
Ev'n while I write, the transient Now is past,
And Death more near this Sentence, than the last!
As some weak Isthmus Seas from Seas divides,
Beat by rude Waves, and sap'd by rushing Tydes,
Torn from its Base, no more their Fury bears,
At once they close, at once it disappears:
Such, such is Life! the Mark of Misery plac'd
Between two Worlds, the future and the past;
To Time, to Sickness, and to Death a Prey,
It sinks, the frail Possession of a Day!
To meet Eternity's immeasur'd Tydes!
A Being, lost alike by Pain or Joy!
A Fly can kill it, or a Worm destroy!
Impair'd by Labour, and by Ease undone,
Commenc'd in Tears, and ended in a Groan!
Ev'n while I write, the transient Now is past,
And Death more near this Sentence, than the last!
As some weak Isthmus Seas from Seas divides,
Beat by rude Waves, and sap'd by rushing Tydes,
Torn from its Base, no more their Fury bears,
At once they close, at once it disappears:
Such, such is Life! the Mark of Misery plac'd
Between two Worlds, the future and the past;
To Time, to Sickness, and to Death a Prey,
It sinks, the frail Possession of a Day!
As
