Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Sentiment: II. Life | | This Life | | William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649) |
| | | THIS Life, which seems so fair, | |
| Is like a bubble blown up in the air | |
| By sporting children’s breath, | |
| Who chase it everywhere | |
| And strive who can most motion it bequeath. | 5 |
| And though it sometimes seem of its own might | |
| Like to an eye of gold to be fixed there, | |
| And firm to hover in that empty height, | |
| That only is because it is so light. | |
| —But in that pomp it doth not long appear; | 10 |
| For when ’t is most admired, in a thought, | |
| Because it erst was nought, it turns to nought. | | | | |
|
|
