It is not growing like a treeIn bulk, doth make man better be;Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:A lily of a dayIs fairer far in May,Although it fall and die that night;It was the plant and flower of light.In small proportions we just beauties see;And in short measures, life may perfect be.
Ben Jonson · The Noble Nature
Comfort & remembrance
“It is not growing like a tree”
- Author
- Ben Jonson
- Work
- The Noble Nature
- Found in
- The Oxford Book of English Verse
- Year
- 1640
- Length
- 72 words
- Source
- Project Gutenberg eBook #66619
Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Ben Jonson died in 1637, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1640. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.
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Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
Death belongs to life as birth does. The walk is in the raising of the foot as in the laying of it down.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,As I foretold you, were all spirits andAre melted into air, into thin air:And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,The solemn temples, the great globe itself,Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuffAs dreams are made on, and our little lifeIs rounded with a sleep.
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Remember me when I am gone away,Gone far away into the silent land;When you can no more hold me by the hand,Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.Remember me when no more day by dayYou tell me of our future that you plann’d:Only remember me; you understandIt will be late to counsel then or pray.Yet if you should forget me for a whileAnd afterwards remember, do not grieve:For if the darkness and corruption leaveA vestige of the thoughts that once I had,Better by far you should forget and smileThan that you should remember and be sad.
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