All is Vanity, Saith the Preacher
by George Gordon, Lord Byron

(From Hebrew Melodies - 1815)


      On the Day of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
    1
  1.   Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine,
  2.      And health and youth possess’d me;
  3.   My goblets blush’d from every vine,
  4.      And lovely forms caress’d me;
  5.   I sunn’d my heart in beauty’s eyes,
  6.      And felt my soul grow tender;
  7.   All earth can give, or mortal prize,
  8.      Was mine of regal splendour.

    2
  9.   I strive to number o’er what days
  10.      Remembrance can discover,
  11.   Which all that life or earth displays
  12.      Would lure me to live over.
  13.   There rose no day, there roll’d no hour
  14.      Of pleasure unembitter’d:
  15.   And not a trapping deck’d my power
  16.      That gall’d not while it glitter’d.

    3
  17.   The serpent of the field, by art
  18.      And spells, is won from harming;
  19.   But that which coils around the heart,
  20.      Oh! who hath power of charming?
  21.   It will not list to wisdom’s lore,
  22.      Nor music’s voice can lure it;
  23.   But there it stings for evermore
  24.      The soul that must endure it.

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