What is "Sic Vita" all about?

“Sic Vita”, at its core, is about the transience of man.
Reading it I’m reminded of a verse in the New Testament, which
states:

For, "All people are like
grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the
flowers fall,

           
                        [1 Peter 1:24; New international Version
(NIV)]

The writer of this poem, Henry King,
Bishop of Chichester, focuses on the fact that human beings will, as stated above,
wither, no matter their respective stations in life. Henry King relates a bevy of
occurrences that mirror what the life of man eventually
becomes.

We will all die one day. We will all,
metaphorically speaking: fall like a star; descend down, such as eagles in flight; die
as a diminishing wind; and in a sense, pop as bubbles burst and
disappear.

I believe this poem is a treatise on
the fact that we should not exalt ourselves to too lofty of a position. No matter our
wealth, or lack thereof; no matter our goals and achievements (which can be noble and
noteworthy), and no matter our social standing, we all, in the end, have no control over
Death in and of ourselves.

The poem is very
hard-hitting in the finality of its final
line:

The flight is past, and man
forgot.

It is said that Death is the
great leveler, and this is propounded greatly in this poem. It is a poem that makes one
stop and think about the important things in life, as we scurry to and fro in an
increasingly hectic, complicated and chaotic world.

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