DEATH'S SUBTLE WAYS

by: James Shirley

      ICTORIOUS men of earth, no more
      Proclaim how wide your empires are;
      Though you bind in every shore
      And your triumphs reach as far
      As night or day,
      Yet you, proud monarchs, must obey
      And mingle with forgotten ashes when
      Death calls ye to the crowd of common men.
       
      Devouring Famine, Plague, and War,
      Each able to undu mankind,
      Death's servile emissaries are;
      Nor to these alone confined,
      He hath at will
      More quaint and subtle ways to kill;
      A smile or kiss, as he will use the art,
      Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart.

'Death's Subtle Ways' was originally published in Cupid and Death: A Masque (1653).

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