| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | A Contrast | | By Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554–1628) |
| | | WHENAS man’s life, the light of human lust, | |
| In socket of his earthly lanthorn burns, | |
| That all his glory unto ashes must, | |
| And generations to corruption turns, | |
| Then fond desires that only fear their end, | 5 |
| Do vainly wish for life, but to amend. | |
| But when this life is from the body fled, | |
| To see itself in that eternal glass, | |
| Where time doth end, and thoughts accuse the dead, | |
| Where all to come is one with all that was; | 10 |
| Then living men ask how he left his breath, | |
| That while he livèd never thought of death. | | | | |
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