On the Life of Man
by Henry King
Like to the falling of a star,
Or as the flights of eagles are,
Or like the fresh Spring’s gaudy hue,
Or silver drops of morning dew,
Or like the wind that chafes the flood,
Or bubbles which on water stood;
Even such is man, whose borrowed light
Is straight called in and paid tonight
The wind blows out, the bubble dies,
The spring entombed in autumn lies,
The dew’s dried up, the star is shot,
The flight is past, and man forgot.
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“On the Life of Man” was originally titled “Sic Vita,” a Latin phrase meaning “Such is Life.” To see the poem as it appeared in early published collections, visit the digitized source volume on the Internet Archive.