Few are thy days, and full of woe

Verse 1

Few are thy days, and full of woe, O man, of woman born! Thy doom is written, ‘Dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.’

Verse 2

Behold the emblem of thy state in flow’rs that bloom and die, or in the shadow’s fleeting form, that mocks the gazer’s eye.

Verse 3

Guilty and frail, how shalt thou stand before thy sov’reign Lord? Can troubled and polluted springs a hallow'd stream afford?

Verse 4

Determin'd are the days that fly successive o’er thy head; the number'd hour is on the wing that lays thee with the dead.

Verse 5

Great God! afflict not in thy wrath the short allotted span that bounds the few and weary days of pilgrimage to man.

Verse 6

All nature dies, and lives again: the flow’r that paints the field, the trees that crown the mountain’s brow, and boughs and blossoms yield,

Verse 7

Resign the honours of their form at Winter’s stormy blast, and leave the naked leafless plain a desolated waste.

Verse 8

Yet soon reviving plants and flow’rs anew shall deck the plain; the woods shall hear the voice of Spring, and flourish green again.

Verse 9

But man forsakes this earthly scene, ah! never to return: shall any foll’wing spring revive the ashes of the urn?

Verse 10

The mighty flood that rolls along its torrents to the main, can ne’er recall its waters lost from that abyss again.

Verse 11

So days, and years, and ages past, descending down to night, can henceforth never more return back to the gates of light;

Verse 12

and man, when laid in lonesome grave, shall sleep in Death’s dark gloom, until th’ eternal morning wake the slumbers of the tomb.

Verse 13

O may the grave become to me the bed of peaceful rest, Whence I shall gladly rise at length, and mingle with the blest!

Verse 14

Cheer'd by this hope, with patient mind, I’ll wait Heav’n’s high decree, till the appointed period come, when death shall set me free.