Vanity of Vanities

Vanity of vanities,

All these things are vanity!

All doth search for human awe,

Glorify to drop the jaw--

Not their fellow man by love;

Only self to be above!

Speech, they think, will make them right;

Shows their strength but shows their blight.

How, you ask, know I of this?

I sobriety had missed--

From my eyes a veil was torn,

Spirit's sight in me was born;

How deformed I have been!

(Not much have I changed since then.)

Worst of all this, all around:

Vanity in them unbound--

Sickness not just in my soul,

In this culture as a whole!

Show another's talents great;

Greater friend you'll be this rate!

Humble, sober you'll be then,

Greater than you've ever been.

Learn to love without desire

Of the sensing of its fire!

Do not let this conquer you,

Conquer vanity anew!

Difficult though this may seem

Brighter soon your soul will gleam; 

Put yourself below the earth,

Suffer and you'll have new birth!