With musings sad my spirit teems — an adaptation in English verse of Psalms 49 by Sir Robert Grant (1821)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Robert Grant

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4 April 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English poetry, English Romanticism, memento mori, Prayers as poems, Psalms 49

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	With musings sad my spirit teems, My harp is strung to saddest themes; O, mortal, hear its notes complain, Nor shun a dark but faithful strain Whose simple length, tho’ short, shall span The mournful history of man.
	How oft, with dreams of pomp elate, The rich upbuilds his haughty state, With eager fondness counts his gains, And proudly names his wide domains; While, left to poverty and scorn, The just in humble silence mourn!
	Yet envy not the pomp, ye just, That towers upon a base of dust: For O, when death decreed shall come To shake the proud man’s lofty dome, Will proffer’d gold avail to save? Or ransoms bribe the yawning grave?
	Lo, stretch’d before his anguish’d eyes, A child, a wife, a brother lies; How vain his stores, his cares how vain, The fleeting spirit to retain! The form he clasps resigns its breath, And fills his blank embrace with death.
	Again it strikes,—a second blow,— The man of pride himself is low: Shall wealth, shall state, attend the dead? ‘Tis only to his clay-cold bed. Caress’d by crowds, by hundreds known, He fills the narrow house alone.
	The funeral pomp, superb and slow, The gorgeous pageantry of woe, The praise that fills th’ historic roll,— Can these assist the parted soul? Or will remembered grandeur cheer The shivering, lonely traveller?
	And when that breathless, wasting clay Again shall feel the life-blood play, When on the cell, where dark it lies, A morn of piercing light shall rise, O whither then shall guilt retire, Or how avoid the eyes of fire?
	O man, with heaven’s own honours bright, And fall’st thou thus, thou child of light? And still shall heirs on heirs anew The melancholy jest pursue? And, born the offspring of the sky, In folly live, in darkness die?
	But I on thee depend, O Lord, My hope, my help, and high reward; Thy word illumes my feeble eyes; Thy spirit all my strength supplies; In sickness thou my aid shalt be, And death but gives me all to thee!

This paraphrase of Psalms 49 in English verse by Sir Robert Grant was first published under the title “Psalm ⅩⅬⅨ. Imitated.” without attribution in Poems Divine and Moral: Many of Them Now First Published (ed. John Bowdler, 1821), pp. 59-61. It was later published posthumously by Robert’s brother Charles Grant (Lord Glenelg) in Sacred Poems by the Late Right Hon. Sir Robert Grant (1839), pp. 22-24.

Source(s)

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Robert Grant

Sir Robert Grant, GCH (1779 – 9 July 1838), born in Bengal, was a British lawyer and politician who had a distinguished public career as Governor of Bombay and as a member of the British Parliament. Of Scottish ancestry, his father was a director of the East India Company. His family relocated to England in 1790 where he later studied law at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1807, he passed the bar after which he became a Commissioner in Bankruptcy. Between 1818 and 1832, he was an elected member of Parliament for several different Burghs. He advocated for the removal of the "Jewish disabilities" (legal restrictions, limitations and obligations placed on British Jewry). and twice carried bills on the subject through the House of Commons. They were, however, rejected in the Upper House, which did not yield on the question until 1858, twenty years after Grant's death.

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Memento Mori, “To This Favour” (1879) by William Michael Harnett

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

With musings sad my spirit teems — an adaptation in English verse of Psalms 49 by Sir Robert Grant (1821)

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