| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Life of Man | | By Henry King (1592–1669) (?) |
| | | LIKE to the falling of a star, | |
| Or as the flights of eagles are, | |
| Or like the fresh spring’s gaudy hue, | |
| Or silver drops of morning dew. | |
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| Or like the wind that chafes the flood, | 5 |
| Or bubbles which on water stood; | |
| Even such is Man, whose borrowed light | |
| Is straight called in and paid to night. | |
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| The winds blow out; the bubble dies; | |
| The spring entombed in autumn lies; | 10 |
| The dew’s dryed up; the star is shot; | |
| The flight is past; and man forgot. | | | | |
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