Monday's Poetry: "A Litany in Time of Plague"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

My congressman, a forty-year-old Republican bachelor by the name of Jason Smith who sleeps rent-free in his office any of those rare times when Congress is in session, sent out his weekly e-mail newsletter this morning.  Congressman Smith used his lead piece in this week's newsletter to gripe about government officials who shutter businesses and limit the size of public gatherings to fight the spreading pandemic.   He seems to feel that those awful bureaucrats are killing free enterprise and stomping the joy out of the holidays!

My congressman is thankful for Donald Trump because he sees Trump as the person who caused the new vaccines to be created, and he also sees Trump as making America safer from the pandemic by keeping diseased immigrants on their side of our southern border with his expensive picket fence that he calls a "wall."

My congressman is, of course, full of baloney.

Here are the facts:

The COVID pandemic has taken hold and flourished under the Trump administration.  Trump and his team got rid of the White House plans for dealing with a pandemic in their rush to throw out all things Obama, and then when an actual pandemic surfaced, they were slow to admit its existence and to respond.  The administration's tardy response and constant stream of denials hampered contagious disease professionals from gearing up to effectively combat the looming threat to our nation's health.  National efforts to contain the disease were half-hearted at best, and soon the White House was openingly fighting state and local efforts to regulate businesses, schools, and gatherings in an effort to control the spread of the virus.  

Now, less than a year into the crisis, the United States of America leads all countries in the world in both the number of positive cases of COVID-19 and in the number of deaths due to the disease.  Over 20% of the world's known cases of the rampaging disease have come from the United States, and over 18% of the deaths have been in our country as well.  Those are shocking statistics for a country that was, until recently, regarded as one of the most scientifically advanced nations on earth.

If Congressman Jason Smith wants to acknowledge Donald Trump for something, perhaps he should recognize him for increasing the medical vulnerability of the entire nation by ignoring the perils imposed by a national health crisis - and for trying to relieve twenty million Americans of their health insurance during the crisis.

Today's poem was penned by 16th century English playwright, poet, and satirist Thomas Nashe.  It is entitled "A Litany in the Time of Plague."  Nashe wrote the poem in 1593 as an outbreak of bubonic plague was invading London.   The poem makes the point that the plague does not discriminate - it can kill anyone - then or now.  

A Litany in Time of Plague

by Thomas Nashe

Adieu, farewell, earth's bliss;

This world uncertain is;

Fond are life's lustful joys;

Death proves them all but toys;

None from his darts can fly;

I am sick, I must die.

    Lord, have mercy on us!

 

Rich men, trust not in wealth,

Gold cannot buy you health;

Physic himself must fade.

All things to end are made,

The plague full swift goes by;

I am sick, I must die.

    Lord, have mercy on us!

 

Beauty is but a flower

Which wrinkles will devour;

Brightness falls from the air;

Queens have died young and fair;

Dust hath closed Helen's eye.

I am sick, I must die.

    Lord, have mercy on us!

 

Strength stoops unto the grave,

Worms feed on Hector brave;

Swords may not fight with fate,

Earth still holds open her gate.

"Come, come!" the bells do cry.

I am sick, I must die.

    Lord, have mercy on us!

 

Wit with his wantonness

Tasteth death's bitterness;

Hell's executioner

Hath no ears for to hear

What vain art can reply.

I am sick, I must die.

    Lord, have mercy on us!

 

Haste, therefore, each degree,

To welcome destiny;

Heaven is our heritage,

Earth but a player's stage;

Mount we unto the sky.

I am sick, I must die.

    Lord, have mercy on us!