John Donne's "Anatomy of the World" excerpt

 

....

And now the springs and summers which we see

Like sons of women over fifty be

And new philosophy calls all in doubt,

The element of fire is quite put out:

...

'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone;

All just supply, and all relation:

Prince, subject, father, son, are things forgot

For every man alone thinks he hath got

To be a phoenix, and that there can be

None of that kind, of which he is, but he,

.....