How vain is Life which rightly we compare

Title:

All is Vanity

Primary Text:

MS Folger, 233-42.

Secondary Eds:

1713 Misc, 4-21; rpt of 1713: 1903 Reynolds, 238- 48; rpt of 1903 Reynolds: 1987 Thompson (but via Squire tradition below), 40, Stanza 3, lines 100-8.

20C:

Rpts of 1713/1903: 1927 Squire, 199-200 as "The Soldier's Death," Stanza 3, lines 100-9 only; 1929 Hughes, 624, as Stanza 3, lines 100-8 from "All is Vanity; 1972 Stanford (via only Squire, and thus as separate poem called "The Soldier's Death"), 80-1; 1978 Silkin (via only Squire, as in Stanford), 23-4; 1990 Fullard, 361 (as "Trail all your pikes").

Date:

Lines on Dryden "now" bestowing much labor on his poems date this poem to between 1697 (the year he published his many translations from Virgil and before May 1, 1700 (Dryden's death); it is also mentioned in Nicholas Rowe's "Epistle to Flavia," (title quoted above), although not, like "The Spleen" included in 1701 Gilden.
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