The Dance of Death

[thesmellypocket 1859]

 

 

 

 

TAKE HEED and your yet-unfailing ears incline

For the time comes when you shall be mine.

Though man and beast I can alike take,

The fruit of Virtue I cannot shake.

All flesh is GRASS, it shall die

That day of death is always nigh.

God shall judge each and ev’ry estate

Death alike is your predestined fate.

 

You must join my dance at last.

 

In that black minute, O rich and famous man,

Thou shalt in coveting virtue only have just began,

But thy cry shall fall on deaf ears

Banished ‘neath falling black rain and fears

For thou shalt be mine then, and I shall say

I have waited for thee, for this is my day

Call upon thy riches, thou didst trust in those!

Let them deliver thee, though they cannot me oppose.

 

Thou must join my dance at last.

 

And thou, great Bishop, by pride enslaved

Knowest thou not that the road to hades is with Priests’ skulls paved?

Thou Bishop will make for me a fine lamppost along the way,

Thou hast no longer time to weep and pray.

For thou shalt be mine, then, and I shall say,

I have waited for thee, and this is my day

Call upon thy lifetime of learning, thou didst trust in it!

An act of Virtue would have done more for thee in a minute.

 

And now thou must join my dance at last.

 

O middle man of contented worldliness most!

Thou art my grandest feast and boast.

Like many, thou carest but little for thy soul, 

And into the Void’s blackness doth idly stroll.

But day shall come when I shall say,

I have waited for thee, and this is my day,

Call upon worldly contentment, it served thee in life!

But now thou must needs hark to the tune of my fife.

 

And thou must join my dance at last.

 

O knight of honour and zeal and might!

O knight spoiling for a fight!

Grapple with me, and thou shalt not doubt,

Thou canst not fight nor stand nor rout,

But must at last yield thy knighthood to my day, the grave,

Thou shouldst have made love of God and man instead thy crave.

Call upon thy worldly honour, thou didst it prize!

And now to my song add thy wretched cries!

 

For thou must join my dance at last. 

 

O, young woman, who dost envi-full dowry want!

I am thy bridegroom now, O come, thou proud debutant!

Death took thee so quick and so fast,

Didst thou not know that dowries do not last?

I come for thee, for this day is mine,

Now look to thy dresses fine.

Can they deliver thee? Give it a try!

Better if they had clothed that orphan thou didst let die!

 

For they fail, and thou must join my dance at last.

 

O, man who put his trust in the Virtues se’en!

I have no power to stop thy soaring into he’en.

How can I not thee confound?

I am before thee weak and dead and drowned!

I thought I could all things possess, 

But thou hast put thy trust in things of holiness.

I call upon all my powers of darkness true,

But thou art blessed by the Most High in thy goodness new!

 

For I fail, and thou hast skipped my dance!

 

O lordling, layabout, craftsman and count,

Know that no worldly good of any amount,

Can stop me, for I was once what thou art now,

And be me forever one day shalt thou.

I am death, and my day is nigh

Covet then the things that do not die.

Then let thy Virtues deliver thee,

And God shall win thee eternal life and glee.

 

Then thou shalt have skipped my dance. Amen. So be it.

 

Fr. Pius of Sutica, FSSCT.

[VIROS 2915]

James II pores over Fr. Pius' latest work, finding it a welcome reprieve from self-indulgently contemplating his own sins. He resumes his daily routine and begins to draft a homily to soothe Providence, after the recent rash of violent assaults.