Doth then the World Go Thus?
by William Drummond

Scottish poet. The main collections of his verse are Poems, Amorous, Funereal, Divine, Pastoral, in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals (1616), The Muses Welcome (1618), and Flowers of Sion (1623), which includes the religious sonnets 'For the Magdalene' and 'Saint John Baptist'. He spent many years writing a History of Scotland 1423-1524, and another notable prose work is A Cypress Grove (1623), a meditation on death. His notes on Ben Jonson's conversation were published in 1832.

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Doth then the World Go Thus?
by William Drummond

Doth then the world go thus? doth all thus move?
Is this the justice which on earth we find?
Is this that firm decree which all doth bind?
Are these your influences, Powers above?
Those souls, which vice's moody mists most blind,
Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove;
And they who thee, poor idol Virtue! love,
Ply like a feather tossed by storm and wind.
Ah! if a Providence doth sway this all,
Why should best minds groan under most distress?
Or why should pride humility make thrall,
And injuries the innocent oppress?
Heavens! hinder, stop this fate; or grant a time
When good may have, as well as bad, their prime!

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Doth then the World Go Thus? by William Drummond