Poems (Piatt)/Volume 1/The King's Memento Mori
THE KING'S MEMENTO MORI.
Into the regal face the risen sun Laughed, and he whispered in dismay:"How is it, Victor of the World, that none Remind you what you are, to-day?
"Your sword shall teach the slave, who could forget That men are mortal, what they are!How dared he sleep,—he has not warned me yet,— After that last, loth, lagging star?"
. . . Across his palace threshold, wan and still, His morning herald, wet with dew,Stared at him with fixed eyes that well might chill The vanity of earth clean through.
"Good-morrow, King," he heard the dead lips say, "See what is man. When did I tellMy bitter message to my lord, I pray, So reverently and so well?"