University of Virginia Library

1254.

[Well doth a summer leaf explain]

We fade as the leaf. —lxiv. 6.

Well doth a summer leaf explain
The transient state of feeble man;
We flourish fair in youthful bloom,
Till age and pallid autumn come;
He comes with sickness at his side,
He withers all our verdant pride;

461

And shook with the first stormy gust,
We drop, and crumble into dust.