Morn and noon and night, Here I lie in the ground; No faintest glimmer of light, No lightest whisper of sound.
Here I lie in the ground; The worms glide out and in; No lightest whisper of sound, After a lifelong din.
The worms glide out and in; They are fruitful and multiply; After a lifelong din I watch them quietly.
They are fruitful and multiply, My body dwindles the while; I watch them quietly; I can scarce forbear a smile.
My body dwindles the while, I shall soon be a skeleton; I can scarce forbear a smile, They have had such glorious fun.
I shall soon be a skeleton, The worms are wriggling away; They have had such glorious fun, They will fertilize my clay.
The worms are wriggling away, They are what I have been; They will fertilize my clay; The grass will grow more green.
They are what I have been. I shall change, but what of that? The grass will grow more green, The parson's sheep grow fat.
I shall change, but what of that? All flesh is grass, one says. The parson's sheep grow fat, The parson grows in grace.
All flesh is grass, one says; Grass becomes flesh, one knows; The parson grows in grace: I am the grace he grows.
Grass becomes flesh, one knows. He grows like a bull of Bashan. I am the grace he grows; I startle his congregation.
He grows like a bull of Bashan, One day he'll be Bishop or Dean. I startle his congregation; One day I shall preach to the Queen.
One day he'll be Bishop or Dean, One of those science-haters; One day I shall preach to the Queen. To think of my going in gaiters!
One of those science-haters, Blind as a mole or bat; To think of my going in gaiters, And wearing a shovel hat!
Blind as a mole or bat, No faintest glimmer of light, And wearing a shovel hat, Morning and noon and night.
[47] On the early history of these forms in France, see Stengel's article in Gröber's _Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie_. vol. ii. pp. 87-96.
[48] On these ballades of Graunson, a "knight of Savoy," see the articles by A. Piaget, in _Romania_, vol. xix., and Lounsbury's _Studies in Chaucer_, vol. iii. p. 450.
Nearly all modern writers on the theory of verse have admitted that English words have no fixed syllabic quantities such as are postulated for the classical languages, but that English quantities, so far as they exist, are variable and (in part at least) subjective in character. To this it is true there are exceptions, chiefly among the poets, like some of those considered in the preceding section on Imitations of Classical Metres.