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| I, SOLOMON, David’s son, King of Jerusalem, | |
| Chosen by God to teach the Jews, and in his laws to lead them, | |
| Confess, under the Sun that every thing is vain; | |
| The world is false; man he is frail, and all his pleasures pain. | |
| Alas! what stable fruit may Adam’s children find | 5 |
| In that they seek by sweat of brows and travail of their mind! | |
| We, that live on the earth, draw toward our decay; | |
| Our children fill our place a while, and then they vade 1 away. | |
| Such changes makes the earth, and doth remove for none; | |
| But serves us for a place to play our tragedies upon. | 10 |
| When that the restless sun westward his course hath run, | |
| Towards the east he hastes as fast to rise where he begun. | |
| When hoary Boreas hath blown his frozen blast, | |
| Then Zephyrus, with his gentle breath, dissolves the ice as fast. | |
| Floods that drink up small brooks, and swell by rage of rain, | 15 |
| Discharge in seas; which them repulse, and swallow straight again. | |
| These worldly pleasures, Lord! so swift they run their race, | |
| That scarce our eyes may them discern; they bide so little space. | |
| What hath been but is now; the like hereafter shall: | |
| What new device grounded so sure, that dreadeth not the fall! | 20 |
| What may be called new, but such things in times past | |
| As Time buried, and doth revive; and Time again shall waste. | |
| Things past right worthy fame, have now no bruit at all; | |
| Even so shall die such things as now the simple wonders call. | |
| I, that in David’s seat sit crowned, and rejoice, | 25 |
| That with my sceptre rule the Jews, and teach them with my voice, | |
| Have searched long to know all things under the sun; | |
| To see how in this mortal life a surety might be won. | |
| This kindled will to know; strange things for to desire, | |
| God hath graft in our greedy breasts a torment for our hire. | 30 |
| The end of each travail forthwith I sought to know; | |
| I found them vain, mixed with gall, and burthen’d with much woe. | |
| Defaults of nature’s work no man’s hand may restore, | |
| Which be in number like the sands upon the salt floods shore. | |
| Then vaunting in my wit, I gan call to my mind | 35 |
| What rules of wisdom I had taught, that elders could not find. | |
| And, as by contraries to try most things we use, | |
| Men’s follies, and their errors eke I gan them all peruse; | |
| Thereby with more delight to knowledge for to climb: | |
| But this I found an endless work of pain, and loss of time. | 40 |
| For he to wisdom’s school that doth apply his mind, | |
| The further that he wades therein, the greater doubts shall find. | |
| And such as enterprise to put new things in ure, | |
| Of some that shall scorn their device, may well themselves assure. | |
