Chatterton, Thomas: Sentiment

Since we can die but once, what matters it,
If rope or garter, poison, pistol, sword,
Slow-wasting sickness, or the sudden burst
Of valve arterial in the noble parts,
Curtail the miseries of human life ?
Tho' varied is the Cause, the Effect’s the same;
All to one common Dissolution tends.

 
1769