Sonnet 87 ("When as Man's Life")

When as Man's life, the light of human lust

In socket of his early lanthorne burnes,

That all this glory unto ashes must,

And generation to corruption turnes;

Then fond desires that onely feare their end,

Doe vainely wish for life, but to amend.

But when this life is from the body fled,

To see it selfe in that eternall Glasse,

Where time doth end, and thoughts accuse the dead,

Where all to come, is one with all that was;

Then living men aske how he left his breath,

That while he lived he never thought of death