Days of Vanity by Christina Georgina Rossetti
The speaker compares mortal life to breaking bubbles, fading flowers, drying dew and rust-eaten treasure. The closing stanza describes sorrow breeding sorrow as people pass out of sight from day to night.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Meditative Poetry · 220 words
First lines
A dream that waketh, / Bubble that breaketh, / Song whose burden sigheth, / A passing breath, / Smoke that vanisheth, -- / Such is life that dieth.
A flower that fadeth, / Fruit the tree sheddeth, / Trackless bird that flieth, / Summer time brief, / Falling of the leaf, -- / Such is life that dieth.
A scent exhaling, / Snow waters failing, / Morning dew that drieth, / A windy blast, / Lengthening shadows cast, -- / Such is life that dieth.
A scanty measure, / Rust-eaten treasure, / Spending that nought buyeth, / Moth on the wing, / Toil unprofiting, -- / Such is life that dieth.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Five rhymed stanzas repeat a refrain about dying life, culminating in the speaker's account of why the song sighs.
- Meditative Poetry — Comparisons with disappearing smoke, seasonal decay and wasted expenditure sustain a reflection on life's brevity and futility.
Tags
mortality · transience · sorrow · decay · futile toil
What this Textopian page supports
Days of Vanity is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 220 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for Days of Vanity by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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