We build our houses on the sand
    Comely withoutside, and within;
    But when the winds and rains begin
  To beat on them, they cannot stand;
  They perish, quickly overthrown,
  Loose at the hidden basement stone.

  All things are vanity, I said: 
    Yea vanity of vanities. 
    The rich man dies; and the poor dies: 
  The worm feeds sweetly on the dead. 
  Whatso thou lackest, keep this trust:—­
  All in the end shall have but dust.

  The one inheritance, which best
    And worst alike shall find and share. 
    The wicked cease from troubling there,
  And there the weary are at rest;
  There all the wisdom of the wise
  Is vanity of vanities.

  Man flourishes as a green leaf,
    And as a leaf doth pass away;
    Or, as a shade that cannot stay,
  And leaves no track, his course is brief: 
  Yet doth man hope and fear and plan
  Till he is dead:—­oh foolish man!

  Our eyes cannot be satisfied
    With seeing; nor our ears be fill’d
    With hearing:  yet we plant and build,
  And buy, and make our borders wide: 
  We gather wealth, we gather care,
  But know not who shall be our heir.

  Why should we hasten to arise
    So early, and so late take rest? 
    Our labor is not good; our best
  Hopes fade; our heart is stayed on lies: 
  Verily, we sow wind; and we
  Shall reap the whirlwind, verily.

  He who hath little shall not lack;
    He who hath plenty shall decay: 
    Our fathers went; we pass away;
  Our children follow on our track: 
  So generations fail, and so
  They are renewed, and come and go.

  The earth is fattened with our dead;
    She swallows more and doth not cease;
    Therefore her wine and oil increase
  And her sheaves are not numbered;
  Therefore her plants are green, and all
  Her pleasant trees lusty and tall.

  Therefore the maidens cease to sing,
    And the young men are very sad;
    Therefore the sowing is not glad,
  And weary is the harvesting. 
  Of high and low, of great and small,
  Vanity is the lot of all.

  A king dwelt in Jerusalem: 
    He was the wisest man on earth;
    He had all riches from his birth,
  And pleasures till he tired of them: 
  Then, having tested all things, he
  Witnessed that all are vanity.

O When and Where

  All knowledge hath taught me,
  All sorrow hath brought me,
    Are smothered sighs
    That pleasure lies,
  Like the last gleam of evening’s ray,
  So far and far away,—­far away.

  Under the cold moist herbs
  No wind the calm disturbs. 
    O when and where? 
    Nor here nor there. 
  Grass cools my face, grief heats my heart. 
  Will this life I swoon with never part?