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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=419540" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Vanities Of Life</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.--_Solomon_</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What are life's joys and gains?<br>What pleasures crowd its ways,<br>That man should take such pains<br>To seek them all his days?<br>Sift this untoward strife<br>On which thy mind is bent:<br>See if this chaff of life<br>Is worth the trouble spent.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Is pride thy heart's desire?<br>Is power thy climbing aim?<br>Is love thy folly's fire?<br>Is wealth thy restless game?<br>Pride, power, love, wealth, and all<br>Time's touchstone shall destroy,<br>And, like base coin, prove all<br>Vain substitutes for joy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost think that pride exalts<br>Thyself in other's eyes,<br>And hides thy folly's faults,<br>Which reason will despise?<br>Dost strut, and turn, and stride,<br>Like walking weathercocks?<br>The shadow by thy side<br>Becomes thy ape, and mocks.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost think that power's disguise<br>Can make thee mighty seem?<br>It may in folly's eyes,<br>But not in worth's esteem,<br>When all that thou canst ask,<br>And all that she can give,<br>Is but a paltry mask<br>Which tyrants wear and live.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Go, let thy fancies range<br>And ramble where they may;<br>View power in every change,<br>And what is the display?<br>--The country magistrate,<br>The meanest shade in power,<br>To rulers of the state,<br>The meteors of an hour.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">View all, and mark the end<br>Of every proud extreme,<br>Where flattery turns a friend,<br>And counterfeits esteem;<br>Where worth is aped in show,<br>That doth her name purloin,<br>Like toys of golden glow<br>That's sold for copper coin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ambition's haughty nod<br>With fancies may deceive,<br>Nay, tell thee thou'rt a god,<br>And wilt thou such believe?<br>Go, bid the seas be dry;<br>Go, hold earth like a ball,<br>Or throw thy fancies by,<br>For God can do it all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost thou possess the dower<br>Of laws to spare or kill?<br>Call it not heavenly power<br>When but a tyrant's will.<br>Know what a God will do,<br>And know thyself a fool,<br>Nor, tyrant-like, pursue<br>Where He alone should rule.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O put away thy pride,<br>Or be ashamed of power<br>That cannot turn aside<br>The breeze that waves a flower.<br>Or bid the clouds be still:<br>Though shadows, they can brave<br>Thy poor power mocking will:<br>Then make not man a slave.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost think, when wealth is won,<br>Thy heart has its desire?<br>Hold ice up to the sun,<br>And wax before the fire;<br>Nor triumph oer the reign<br>Which they so soon resign;<br>In this world's ways they gain,<br>Insurance safe as thine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost think life's peace secure<br>In house and in land?<br>Go, read the fairy lure<br>To twist a cord in sand;<br>Lodge stones upon the sky,<br>Hold water in a sieve,<br>Nor give such tales the lie,<br>And still thine own believe.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whoso with riches deals,<br>And thinks peace bought and sold,<br>Will find them slipping eels,<br>That slide the firmest hold:<br>Though sweet as sleep with health<br>Thy lulling luck may be,<br>Pride may oerstride thy wealth,<br>And check prosperity.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost think that beauty's power<br>Life sweetest pleasure gives?<br>Go, pluck the summer flower,<br>And see how long it lives:<br>Behold, the rays glide on<br>Along the summer plain<br>Ere thou canst say 'they're gone,'<br>And measure beauty's reign.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Look on the brightest eye,<br>Nor teach it to be proud;<br>View but the clearest sky,<br>And thou shalt find a cloud;<br>Nor call each face ye meet<br>An angel's, cause it's fair,<br>But look beneath your feet,<br>And think of what they are.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Who thinks that love doth live<br>In beauty's tempting show,<br>Shall find his hopes ungive,<br>And melt in reason's thaw.<br>Who thinks that pleasure lies<br>In every fairy bower,<br>Shall oft, to his surprise,<br>Find poison in the flower.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost lawless passions grasp?<br>Judge not thou deal'st in joy:<br>Its flowers but hide the asp,<br>Thy revels to destroy.<br>Who trusts an harlot's smile,<br>And by her wiles are led,<br>Plays, with a sword the while<br>Hung dropping oer his head.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dost doubt my warning song?<br>Then doubt the sun gives light,<br>Doubt truth to teach thee wrong,<br>And wrong alone as right;<br>And live as lives the knave,<br>Intrigue's deceiving guest;<br>Be tyrant, or be slave,<br>As suits thy ends the best.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Or pause amid thy toils<br>For visions won and lost,<br>And count the fancied spoils,<br>If eer they quit the cost:<br>And if they still possess<br>Thy mind, as worthy things,<br>Plat straws with bedlam Bess,<br>And call them diamond rings.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thy folly's past advice,<br>Thy heart's already won,<br>Thy fall's above all price,<br>So go, and be undone;<br>For all who thus prefer<br>The seeming great for small<br>Shall make wine vinegar,<br>And sweetest honey gall.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Wouldst heed the truths I sing,<br>To profit wherewithal,<br>Clip folly's wanton wing,<br>And keep her within call.<br>I've little else to give,<br>What thou canst easy try;<br>The lesson how to live<br>Is but to learn to die.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Clare">John Clare</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=419540" data-title="The Vanities Of Life de John Clare" data-description="Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.--_Solomon_

What are life's joys and gains?
What pleasures crowd its ways,
That man should take such pains
To seek them all his days?
Sift this untoward strife
On which thy mind is bent:
See if this chaff of life..."></div>
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