A certain Simon Wastell, scholar of Queen's College, Oxford, has
been credited in anthologies with the authorship of a
very charming set of verses, of much interest in the history Of poetry ; of much interest because, apparently, they set a small fashion of composition among better poets, and yet, in that kind, were never excelled: They are the Verses on Man's Mortality, now published in a pamphlet illustrated by woodcuts by The Seven Acres Press, Long Crendon. Bucks, and beginning :--
Like as the Damaske Rose you see, Or like the Blossom() on the Tree, Or like the dainty Flower of May, Or like the Morning to the Day, Or like the Surma or like the Shade, Or like the Gourd which Jonas had :
Even such is Man ; whose thred is spun, Drawn out, and cut, and so-is done. The Rose withers, the Blossom blasteth, Tho Flower fades, the Morning hasteth, The Sunne sets, the Shadow flies, The Gourd consumes, and Man he dyes.
It was Simon's one claim to remembrance, and now it is taken from him ; for the editors, who publish with it u continuation, Of the Hope of his Resurrection, categorically deny to him the authorship of either poem.
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