All is Vanity - Lord Byron

Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine,

And health and youth possessed me;

My goblets blushed from every vine,

And lovely forms caressed me;

I sunned my heart in beauty’ eyes,

And felt my soul grow tender;

All earth can give, or mortal prize,

Was mine of regal splendour.

I strive to number o’er what days

Remembrance can discover,

Which all that life or earth displays

Would lure me to live over.

There rose no day, there rolled no hour

Of pleasure unembittered;

And not a trapping decked my power

That galled not while it glittered.

The serpent of the field, by art

And spells, is won from harming;

But that which soils around the heart,

Oh! who hath power of charming?

It will not list to wisdom’s lore,

Nor music’s voice can lure it;

But there it stings for evermore

The soul that must endure it.

- My interpretation of this is that a life can be filled with what appears to be wonderful 'things', fame and power etc. You can feel like you have everything however 'it will not list to wisdom's lore, nor music's voice can lure it' if it is all vanity and goes no deeper in your soul. This vanity curses your life hence 'it stings for evermore the soul that must endure it'. It is better for humans to live a life which is honest and real even if it is not perfect as those who have the glamorous lives everyone so aspires to have. It is harder to determine who and what is real in a world filled with vanity.