The World: Henry Vaughan Published in 1650 as part of his Silex Scintillan, or Sacred Poems

I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,
        All calm, as it was bright,
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years
                Driv'n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov'd, In which the world
        And all her train were hurl'd;
The doting Love in his queintest strain
               Did their Complain,
Neer him, his Lute, his fancy, and his flights,
               Wits sour delights,
With gloves, and knots the silly snares of pleasure
               Yet his dear Treasure
All scatter'd lay, while he his eys did pour
               Upon a flowr.

2.
The darksome States-man hung with weights and woe
Like a thick midnight-fog mov'd there so slow
        He did nor stay, nor go;
condemning thoughts (like sad Ecclipses) scowl
               Upon his soul,
And Clouds of crying witness without
        Pursued him with one shout.
Yet dig'd the Mole, and let his ways be found
              Workt under ground,
Where he did clutch his prey, but one did see
              That policie,
Churches and altars fed him, Perjuries
              Were gnats and flies,
It rain'd about him bloud and tears, but he
              Drank them as free.

3.
The fearfull miser on a heap of rust
Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
        His own hands with the dust,
Yet would not place one peece above, but lives
                 In feare of theeves.
Thousands there were as frantick as himself
         And hug'd each one his pelf,
The down-right Epicure plac'd heav'n in sense
                 And scornd pretence
While other slipt into a wide Excesse
                 Said little lesse;
The weaker sort slight, triviall wares Inslave
                 Who think them brave,
And poor, despised truth sate Counting by
                  Their victory.

4.
Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
And sing, and weep, soar'd up into the Ring,
           But most would use no wing.
O fools (said I,) thus to prefer dark night
                       Before true light,
To live in grots, and caves, and hate the day
           Because it shews the way,
The way which from this dead and dark abode
                   Leads up to God,
A way where you might treat the sun, and be
                   More bright than he.
But as I did their madnes so discusse
            One whisper'd thus,
This ring the Bride-groome did for none provide
            But for his bride.

John Chap. 2 ver. 16, 17

All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eys, 

and the pride of life, is not of the father, but is of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that

doth the will of God abideth for ever.