Sir Walter Ralegh poem. On the Life of Man.

The Seven Ages of Man, from Petit's Almanack, 1525.

On the Life of Man
Sir Walter Ralegh

What is our life? a play of passion,
Our mirth the musicke of division,
Our mothers wombes the tyring houses be,
When we are drest for this short Comedy,
Heaven the Judicious sharpe spector is,                  5
That sits and markes still who doth act amisse,
Our graves that hide us from the searching Sun,
Are like drawne curtaynes when the play is done,
Thus march we playing to our latest rest,
Onely we dye in earnest, that's no Jest.                            10

[AJ Notes:

musicke of division,, the entr'acte, the music that marked
the division between acts.
tyring houses, on the Elizabethan stage, the 'tiring house',
from "attiring house" was the room where the actors
got dressed before a performance.
spector, spectator, with a play on 'spectre'.
still, always, ever.
latest, last.]

Source:
The Anchor Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Verse.
Richard S. Sylvester, Ed.
Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1974. 341.

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