The Glories of our Blood and State

 

 

                                The Glories of our Blood and State

                  ‘‘ The Glories of our Blood and State” is the title of a lyrical poem written by the English dramatist James Shirley (September 1596 -- October 1666). This very popular lyric which has found place in many anthologies has been taken from the play Ajax and Ulysses. His plays, say Legouis  and Cazamian , are  among the most  correct and among the most outstanding of those which appeared in the reign of Charles I, that is from 1625 until the theatres were closed in 1642.

The text of the lyric reads as follows:

The glories of our blood and state

Are shadows, not substantial things;

There is no armour against Fate;

Death lays his icy hands on kings:

Sceptre and crown Must tumble down ,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade. 

 

Some men with swords may reap the field,

And plant fresh laurels where they kill;

But their strong nerves at last must yield;

They tame but one another still.

Early or late,

They stoop to fate,

And must give up their murmuring breath,

When they, pale captives, creep to death.

 

The garlands wither on your brow,

Then boast no more your mighty deeds ;

Upon Death’s purple altar now

See where the victor-victim bleed;:

Your heads must come

To the cold tomb;

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

            The moral of the poem is that Death is a great  leveller. It makes no distinction between the rich and the poor, the high and the low ; all  have to die. The glories of our blood and state are transient. Victors are no better than victims. No body is exempted from death. Everyone  has to die sooner or later. What survives and blossoms  are not the  possessions of a person  but his good deeds.    

 

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G. R. Kanwal

15^th July 2023