Virtue

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright’

The bridal of the earth and sky;

The dew shall weep thy fall to night’

For thou must die.

Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave,

Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye;

Thy root is ever in its grave,

And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,

A box where sweets compacted lie;

My music shows ye have your closes,

And all must die.

Only a sweet and virtous soul,

Like seasoned timber, never gives;

But though the whole world turn to coal,

Then chiefly lives.

George Herbert (1593-1633)