“All heads must come
To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”
The first verse only of George Herbert’s “Virtue” is familiar to men; all four have a music and a meaning of their own:—
“Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky,
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die.
“Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave