HARK, NOW EVERYTHING IS STILL
by: John Webster
- ARK, now everything is still,
- The screech-owl and the whistler shrill,
- Call upon our dame aloud,
- And bid her quickly don her shroud!
- Much you had of land and rent;
- Your length in clay's now competent:
- A long war disturbed your mind;
- Here your perfect peace is signed.
- Of what is't fools make such vain keeping?
- Sin their conception, their birth weeping,
- Their life a general mist of error,
- Their death a hideous storm of terror.
- Strew your hair with powders sweet,
- Don clean linen, bathe your feet,
- And (the foul fiend more to check)
- A crucifix let bless your neck:
- 'Tis now full tide 'tween night and day;
- End your groan, and come away.
'Hark, Now Everything is Still'
was originally published in the The Duchess of Malfi (1623). |
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POEMS BY JOHN WEBSTER |
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