William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649). The World, a Hunting. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

The World, a Hunting

By William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)


THIS world a hunting is,
The prey poor man, the Nimrod fierce is Death;
His speedy greyhounds are
Lust, sickness, envy, care,
Strife that ne’er falls amiss,	5
With all those ills which haunt us while we breathe.
Now, if by chance we fly
Of these the eager chase,
Old Age with stealing pace
Casts on his nets, and there we panting die.	10