Man's Medley

      Heark, how the birds do sing,

              And woods do ring.

All creatures have their joy: and Man hath his

      Yet if we rightly measure,

              Man's joy and pleasure

Rather hereafter, than in present, is

      To this life things of sense

              Make their pretence.

In th' other Angels have a right by birth:

        Man ties them both alone,

              And makes them one,

With th' one hand touching heav'n, with th' other earth.

        In soul he mounts and flies,

              In flesh he dies.

He wears a stuffe whose thread is course and round,

        But trimm'd with curious lace

              And should take place

After the trimming, not the stuffe and ground.

        Not that he may not here

              Taste of the cheer:

But as birds drink, and straight lift up their head;

        So must he sip and think

              Of better drink

He may attain to, after he is dead.

        But as his joyes are double,

              So is his trouble.

He hath two winters, other things, but one:

        Both frosts and thoughts do nip:

              And bite his lip;

And he of all things fears two deaths alone.

        Yet ev'n the greatest griefs

              May be reliefs,

Could he but take them right, and in their wayes.

        Happie is he, whose heart

              Hath found the art

To turn his double pains to double praise.