Like to the falling of a star,
Or [as the flights]1 of eagles are;
Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue,
Or silver drops of morning dew;
Or like a wind that chafes the flood,
Or bubbles which on water stood:
Even such is man, whose borrowed [light]2
Is straight call'd in, and paid to night.
  The wind blows out, the bubble dies;
  The spring entombed in autumn lies.
  The dew dries up, the star is shot;
  The flight is past and man forgot.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Note: author given as "Harry King" in the Bennett score.
¹ Bennett: "like the flight"
² Bennett: "plight"

Text Authorship:

• by Henry King (1592 - 1669), first published 1664 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 - 2012), "Like to the falling of a star", from Tenebrae, no. 2. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Olivier Greif (1950 - 2000), "Sic vita", op. 310 no. 4 (1995) [voice and piano], from Les chants de l'âme, no. 4. [
   text not verified 
  ]

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , title 1: "Ainsi est la vie", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 84