A shining youth no more am I,
In thrall to joy and love
Winter’s claw hath touched my soul
Chilled time has this to prove:
None shall escape the hour-glass
Each grain of sand must fall.
And bonny flesh must withered grow
Death visits every hall.

These simple facts, such common truths
Which every man doth know
I once believed, perhaps embraced
And ancient still I grow
Yet life has stopped for this old man
My corpse in time has froze
Now I do drink the blood of kings
My grave shall never close.

I am immortal as the sea
Forever cursed to rove
And I must watch as time doth steal
Those I perchance to love
Now I am Death and time is mine
I spin the hour-glass
Do not reach out to touch me, child
For soon you too shall pass

I shall stand upon thy grave
And kiss the crumbled stone,
Clear away the ivy wild
Lament that you are gone
A tear of blood shall leave my eye
Bound am I to remember
The joy that once we spent in May
Although alone I face December.