Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | London | | Westminster Abbey | | Francis Beaumont (1586–1616) |
| | On the Tombs in Westminster
MORTALITY, behold and fear, | |
| What a change of flesh is here! | |
| Think how many royal bones | |
| Sleep within this heap of stones; | |
| Here they lie, had realms and lands, | 5 |
| Who now want strength to stir their hands | |
| Where from their pulpits; soiled with dust, | |
| They preach, in greatness is no trust. | |
| Here ’s an acre sown indeed | |
| With the richest, royal’st seed | 10 |
| That the earth did e’er suck in | |
| Since the first man died for sin; | |
| Here the bones of birth have cried, | |
| Though gods they were, as men they died; | |
| Here are sands, ignoble things, | 15 |
| Dropped from the ruined sides of kings. | |
| Here ’s a world of pomp and state | |
| Buried in dust, once dead by fate. | | | | |
|
|
