When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay:
Tomorrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, We shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Strange couzenage! none would live past years again,
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
And, from the dregs of Life, think to receive
What the first sprightly running could not give.
I'm tir'd with waiting for this Chymic Gold,
Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.
The poem ‘When I Consider Life’ is an extract from John Dryden’s ‘Aureng-Zebe’ (Act IV, Scene i). The poet laments the folly of human beings who do not see through the illusion of hope and go on hoping that better things would come their way. Although there is no hope for the things becoming better yet the mankind believe that there will be happiness.
The poet writes that when he thinks about life he feels that human life is a deception. Even then men are fooled by hope. They think that things will turn better in future. What they don’t realize is that the future is even more false than the present. Men constantly hope that they will be rewarded some day and will get some happiness. But the rewards never come their way and they lose even what they had earlier.
The poet remarks that it is a strange cheating/deceit. He says that nobody can relive the time that is past. Even then men believe that things will be better. Human beings hope that from the unhappy and dirty things of life they’ll have some happiness which they never get.
The poet says that he is tired of the false and deceitful nature of life, which has fooled them since they were young and will leave them empty-handed in their old age.
The last line reminded me of Shakespeare’s lines about old age: “mere oblivion / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” Infact old age is the golden age of a man’s life but it is a shameful sight when the old people are not taken care of. As Dryden writes “Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay”, the line can also be taken to mean that our actions and deeds are paid back tomorrow. We get back what we do.
Hope is a good thing but hope for good when we ourselves do good to others. And remember there is a limit to hoping. We cannot always say like Browning “God’s in his Heaven and all’s well with the world”. There is a saying by Francis Bacon (I think!): Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
The poet writes that when he thinks about life he feels that human life is a deception. Even then men are fooled by hope. They think that things will turn better in future. What they don’t realize is that the future is even more false than the present. Men constantly hope that they will be rewarded some day and will get some happiness. But the rewards never come their way and they lose even what they had earlier.
The poet remarks that it is a strange cheating/deceit. He says that nobody can relive the time that is past. Even then men believe that things will be better. Human beings hope that from the unhappy and dirty things of life they’ll have some happiness which they never get.
The poet says that he is tired of the false and deceitful nature of life, which has fooled them since they were young and will leave them empty-handed in their old age.
The last line reminded me of Shakespeare’s lines about old age: “mere oblivion / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” Infact old age is the golden age of a man’s life but it is a shameful sight when the old people are not taken care of. As Dryden writes “Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay”, the line can also be taken to mean that our actions and deeds are paid back tomorrow. We get back what we do.
Hope is a good thing but hope for good when we ourselves do good to others. And remember there is a limit to hoping. We cannot always say like Browning “God’s in his Heaven and all’s well with the world”. There is a saying by Francis Bacon (I think!): Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
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