ANONYMOUS
A Dialogue between Death and Youth
Death.
Come on, good fellow, make an end
For you and I must talk.
You may no longer sojourn here,
But hence you must walk.
The personification of Death is asking the personification of Youth to leave life. Death is telling Youth to make an end of whatever he is doing because it is his turn to die.
Youth.
What woeful words, alas,
Be these that I do hear!
Alas, and shall I now forthwith
Forsake my life so dear?
Youth responds with cries of sorrow and asks Death if he must give up his life at that moment.
Death.
Come on, come on, and linger not;
Ye trifle but the time.
Ye make too much of that, ymis,
Which is but dirt and slime.
Death asks Youth to stop wasting time and tells Youth that he is making too much of the natural world because it isn't as great as he thinks.
Youth.
O cursed death, what dost thou mean,
So cruel for to be,
To him that never thought thee harm
Nor once offended thee!
Youth asks Death why Death would choose to hurt him since Youth has done nothing wrong. This is a form of the general question "Why must the innocent suffer and die?"
O death, behold: I am but young
And of a pleasant age.
Take thou some old and crooked wight,
And spare me in thy rage.
Youth begs Death not to kill him because he is young and with much to live for. Instead, Youth asks Death to take someone who is old and has experienced much of life.
Behold, my limbs be lively now,
My mind and courage strong,
And by the verdict of all men
Like to continue long;
Youth now explains how much in good health he is and that all men in his condition would want to continue living. There is no physical reason for why he should die.
My beauty like the rose so red,
My hair like glist’ring gold;
And canst thou now pity then,
Transform me into mould?
Youth is now expressing how beautiful he is, with rosy cheeks and golden blonde hair. “Youth seems to be saying that if Death kills him then Death would deprive the world of Youth's beauty. After explaining that he has much to live for, is in good health and is beautiful, Youth then asks if Death still desires to kill him.
O gentle death, be not extreme;
Thy mercy here I crave.
It is not for thine honour now
To fetch me to my grave.
By asking Death not to be extreme, youth is asking Death not to kill him. Youth asks for Death’s mercy claiming that it would not be an honorable act to take someone from life who is so beautiful, in such good health, and has so much to live for.
But rather let me live a while,
Till youth consumed be.
When crooked age doth me oppress,
Then welcome death to me.
Youth is asking Death to let him live until he himself is an old man and then says that he would welcome Death to him.
Death.
O foolish man, what dost thou mean
To strive against the stream?
Nothing there is that can thee now
Out of my hands redeem.
Death claims that Youth is a fool to try and change the natural balance of the world. It is out of Death’s hands to choose who is to die and who is to live, since the fates of men are not determined by Death but by God.
Thy time is past, thy days are gone,
Thy race is fully run.
Thou must of force now make an end,
As thou hadst once begun.
Death is telling Youth that Youth has no more days left to live. "Race" is figurative for a span of life and, since Youth’s is fully run, that means that Youth is at the very end of his span of life. Youth must die because he was born just like every other creature born into this world.
O fool, why dost thou beg and boast
Of these thy youthful days?-
Which passeth fast and fadeth swift
As flowers fresh decays.
Death asks why Youth boasts of his beauty since time goes by so rapidly and would eventually leave him like the flowers' beauty as it wilts.
Both youth and age to me be one-
I care not whom I strike:
The child, the man, the father old,
Do I reward alike.
Age does not matter to Death because all must die eventually.
The proudest of them all, ywis,
Can not escape my dart:
The lady fair, the lazar foul
Shall both possess a part.
It does not matter if the person is a fair maiden or a person dying of disease. Death will take any one no matter what their stature is in life, whether their lives are pleasant or not.
Thou art not now the first, I say,
That I have eared up;
Ne yet shalt be the last, pardie,
That drinketh of my cup.
Death is telling Youth how he is not the only one who has begged Death for his life, and will not be the last the Death must kill.
For he that doth us now behold-
Perusing this our talk-
He knoweth not yet how soon, God wot,
With thee and me to walk!
Death here is now refers to the reader claiming that the reader has no idea when God intends for him to die.This is likily to invoke emotion about the reader's own moratlity.
Dispatch, therefore, and make an end,
For needs you must obey;
And as thou camest into this world,
So shalt thou now away.
Death commands youth to leave his life now because it is something Youth can not do otherwise. Youth was once born and all things that live must at sometime die.
Youth.
And must I pass of this world
Indeed, and shall I so?
May no man me restrain a while,
But needs now must I go?
Youth asks himself if he is truly going to die and if he must die now does he have to go without saying another word to another living being.
Why, then, farewell my life and lands,
Adieu my pleasures all!
Lo dreadful death doth us depart,
And me away doth call.
Now youth has accepted his fate and is saying good bye to all his worldly possessions and earthly pleasures since it is his time to die.
My cheerful days be worn away,
My pleasant time is past;
My youthful years are spent and gone,
My life it may not last.
And I (for lack of life and breath)
Whose like hath not been seen,
Shall straight consumed be to dust,
As I had never been.
These last stanzas are an admission that he is going to die. He has lived all his years and will be eventually turned into dust. ( This is also an allusion to a religious rite at death, ashes to ashes, dust to dust).
But though I yield as now to thee,
When nothing can me save,
Yet I am sure that I shall live
When thou thy death shalt have.
Youth’s final statement is that though he gives into Death now, with nothing else he can do, he is sure that he will live on and it is Death who will die. Death is meaningless when a person lives on even after death. It can be considered a transitional phase from the living world to the spiritual world were death need not exist.