The complete works of John Lyly now for the first time collected and edited from the earliest quartos with life, bibliography, essays, notes and index by R. Warwick Bond |
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 | The complete works of John Lyly |  |
67.
[Life is a Poets fable]
Life is a Poets fable,
& al her daies are lies
Stolne from deaths reckoning table,
For I die as I speake,
Death times the notes that I doe breake.
& al her daies are lies
Stolne from deaths reckoning table,
For I die as I speake,
Death times the notes that I doe breake.
Childhood doth die in youth,
And youth in old age dies,
I thought I liu'd in truth:
But I die, now I see,
Each age of death makes one degree.
And youth in old age dies,
I thought I liu'd in truth:
But I die, now I see,
Each age of death makes one degree.
Farewell the doting score
Of worlds arithmeticke,
Life, Ile trust thee no more,
Till I die, for thy sake,
Ile go by deaths new almanacke.
Of worlds arithmeticke,
Life, Ile trust thee no more,
Till I die, for thy sake,
Ile go by deaths new almanacke.
This instant of my song,
A thousand men lie sicke,
A thousand knels are rong:
And I die as I sing,
They are but dead and I dying.
A thousand men lie sicke,
A thousand knels are rong:
502
They are but dead and I dying.
Death is but lifes decay,
Life time, time wastes away,
Then reason bids me say,
That I die, though my breath
Prolongs this space of lingring death.
Life time, time wastes away,
Then reason bids me say,
That I die, though my breath
Prolongs this space of lingring death.
| The complete works of John Lyly | |