Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

A Description of the Worlde

XXXV. G. Gaske

WHAT is the worlde? A net to snare the soule;

A masse of sinne; a desert of deceipt;

A moment’s ioy; an age of wretched dole;

A lure from grace; for flesh a lothsome baite;

Unto the minde a canker-worme of care,

Unsure, vniust, in rendring man his share:

A place where pride orerunnes the honest minde;

Where rich men ioynes to rob the shiftlesse wretch;

Where bribing mistes doo blinde the judges’ eyen;

Where parasites the fattest crummes doo catch;

Where good deserts, which chalenge like reward,

Are ouerblowne with blastes of light regard.

And what is man? Dust; slime; a pufe of winde;

Conceiud in sinne, plaste in the world with griefe;

Brought vp with care, till care hath caught his minde,

And then, till death vouchesafe him some reliefe,

Day, yea, nor night, his care doth take no end,

To gather goodes for other men to spend.

Oh foolish man, that art in office plaste,

Thinke whence thou camst and whether thou shalt goe!

The hautie okes small winds haue ouercast,

When slender weedes in roughest weather growe.

Euen so pale death oft spares the wretched wight,

And woundeth you who wallowe in delight.