WORMS

1 definition found

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  WORMS'-:MEAT:, n.  The finished product of which we are the raw
  material.  The contents of the Taj Mahal, the Tombeau Napoleon and the
  Granitarium.  Worms'-meat is usually outlasted by the structure that
  houses it, but "this too must pass away."  Probably the silliest work
  in which a human being can engage is construction of a tomb for
  himself.  The solemn purpose cannot dignify, but only accentuates by


  contrast the foreknown futility.
  
      Ambitious fool! so mad to be a show!
      How profitless the labor you bestow
          Upon a dwelling whose magnificence
      The tenant neither can admire nor know.
  
      Build deep, build high, build massive as you can,
      The wanton grass-roots will defeat the plan
          By shouldering asunder all the stones
      In what to you would be a moment's span.
  
      Time to the dead so all unreckoned flies
      That when your marble is all dust, arise,
          If wakened, stretch your limbs and yawn --
      You'll think you scarcely can have closed your eyes.
  
      What though of all man's works your tomb alone
      Should stand till Time himself be overthrown?
          Would it advantage you to dwell therein
      Forever as a stain upon a stone?
                                                               Joel Huck