Thomas, 2d Baron Vaux of Harrowden Vaux

The sixteenth-century courtier poet Thomas Vaux was born on April 25, 1509 to Nicholas Vaux, first Baron Vaux of Harrowden, and his wife Anne. He was married to Elizabeth Cheyne when he was fourteen; in time, they

Bethinking Himself of His End, Writeth Thus

by Thomas, 2d Baron Vaux of Harrowden Vaux (1510–66)

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When I behold the bier, my last and posting horse,

That bare shall to the grave my vile and carren corse,

Then say I, seely wretch, why doest thou put thy trust

In things each made of clay that soon will turn to dust?

Doest thou not see the young, the hardy, and the fair

That now are past and gone, as though they never were?

Doest thou not see thy self draw hourly to thy last,

As shafts which that are shot at birds that flieth fast?

Doest thou not see how death through smiteth with his lance,

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Poets Book of Days

April 25

Ted Kooser born, 1939

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

What poet's epitaph reads, "And alien tears will fill for him / Pity's long broken urn, / For his mourners will be outcast men, / And outcasts always mourn"?

Answer

Oscar Wilde. The lines are taken from his poem "Ballad of Reading Gaol."

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