Same As Everyone — Classics in the Key of Post-Hardcore

The Texts

The Original Poem & The Adaptation

A Litany in Time of Plague — Thomas Nashe, 1592

Adieu, farewell, earth's bliss; This world uncertain is; Fond are life's lustful joys; Death proves them all but toys; None from his darts can fly; I am sick, I die. Lord, have mercy on us!

Rich men, trust not in wealth, Gold cannot buy you health; Physic himself must fade, All things to end are made, The plague full swift goes by; I am sick, I die. Lord, have mercy on us!

Beauty is but a flower Which wrinkles will devour; Brightness falls from the air; Queens have died young and fair; Dust hath closed Helen's eye. I am sick, I die. Lord, have mercy on us!

Strength stoops unto the grave, Worms feed on Hector brave; Swords may not fight with fate, Earth still holds ope her gate. “Come, come!” the bells do cry. I am sick, I die. Lord, have mercy on us!

Same As Everyone — post-hardcore, 180 BPM, female vocals

Verse 1

The billionaire flew in by helicopter to a private floor His doctors came from three countries with machines nobody else could get He died on a ventilator same as everyone The influencer filmed from her bed with the oxygen tube tucked behind her ear She coded at four AM and nobody posted that The girl down the hall was nineteen, ran cross country in the fall Couldn't breathe by spring, her mother's scream went through the walls I AM SICK AND I AM DYING LORD HAVE MERCY ON US

Verse 2

The firefighter benched three hundred pounds and ran five miles every day They flipped him face down on the mattress and his oxygen still dropped His wife taped photos of their kids to the window he couldn't turn to see The doctor who wrote the protocol got admitted to his own ward He read his own chart and watched his lungs fill on the screen He knew exactly what was happening and couldn't stop a thing The kid did everything right, masked and distant, didn't leave his room for a year He came in on a Tuesday and I zipped his bag on Thursday I AM SICK AND I AM DYING LORD HAVE MERCY ON US

How the structure maps

The Core Structural Engine

Nashe wrote his poem during a plague outbreak in London in 1592. The engine is a catalog of things that cannot save you: wealth, beauty, strength, wisdom. Each stanza names a category of human advantage and shows that plague kills it just the same. The refrain — “I am sick, I die. / Lord, have mercy on us!” — repeats after every stanza.

Same As Everyone uses the same catalog engine during a modern pandemic. Each person represents a category of advantage: wealth (billionaire), fame (influencer), youth (nineteen-year-old), strength (firefighter), knowledge (doctor), obedience (the kid who followed every rule). Every one of them dies. The refrain is Nashe’s refrain, barely changed.

Wealth Cannot Save You

Nashe’s Poem

“Rich men, trust not in wealth, / Gold cannot buy you health; / Physic himself must fade” — rich men die. Even the physician cannot escape.

Same As Everyone

“The billionaire flew in by helicopter to a private floor / His doctors came from three countries with machines nobody else could get / He died on a ventilator same as everyone”

Nashe says gold cannot buy health. The song shows what gold can buy: a helicopter, a private floor, doctors from three countries, machines unavailable to anyone else. It buys everything except survival. “Same as everyone” is the engine of the title — the ventilator is the equalizer.

Beauty and Youth Cannot Save You

Nashe’s Poem

“Beauty is but a flower / Queens have died young and fair / Dust hath closed Helen’s eye” — beauty dies. Youth dies. Even Helen of Troy is dust.

Same As Everyone

“The influencer filmed from her bed with the oxygen tube tucked behind her ear / She coded at four AM and nobody posted that / The girl down the hall was nineteen, ran cross country in the fall / Couldn’t breathe by spring”

The influencer tucked the oxygen tube behind her ear so it wouldn’t show in the video. She was still performing beauty while dying. “She coded at four AM and nobody posted that” — the death happened off-camera. The nineteen-year-old ran cross country in the fall and couldn’t breathe by spring. Nashe measures the distance in wrinkles. The song measures it in seasons.

Strength Cannot Save You

Nashe’s Poem

“Strength stoops unto the grave, / Worms feed on Hector brave; / Swords may not fight with fate” — the strongest warrior in Troy is eaten by worms.

Same As Everyone

“The firefighter benched three hundred pounds and ran five miles every day / They flipped him face down on the mattress and his oxygen still dropped / His wife taped photos of their kids to the window he couldn’t turn to see”

Nashe’s Hector is the strongest man in the Trojan War. The firefighter benches three hundred pounds. Both are defined by physical power. Both are destroyed by something physical power cannot fight. The photos taped to the window he can’t turn to see — his strength means nothing.

Knowledge Cannot Save You

Nashe’s Poem

“Physic himself must fade” — one line. Even the physician dies.

Same As Everyone

“The doctor who wrote the protocol got admitted to his own ward / He read his own chart and watched his lungs fill on the screen / He knew exactly what was happening and couldn’t stop a thing”

Nashe gives the physician one line. The song gives the doctor three lines: he wrote the treatment protocol, he is now a patient in his own ward, he reads his own chart, he watches his own lungs fill. Complete knowledge of what is killing him and complete inability to stop it.

Obedience Cannot Save You

Nashe’s Poem

No direct equivalent — the plague had no known prevention in 1592.

Same As Everyone

“The kid did everything right, masked and distant, didn’t leave his room for a year / He came in on a Tuesday and I zipped his bag on Thursday”

This is the category the song adds that Nashe couldn’t. The modern pandemic had rules. The kid followed every rule for a year. He still died. Tuesday to Thursday — two days. “I zipped his bag” means the narrator is a healthcare worker. This is the first moment the narrator identifies themselves, and it happens in the last patient — the one who did everything right.

The Refrain

Nashe’s refrain repeats after every stanza: “I am sick, I die. / Lord, have mercy on us!” The prayer is genuine. The refrain is a litany — a form of prayer that repeats the same words.

The song uses almost the same words: “I AM SICK AND I AM DYING LORD HAVE MERCY ON US.” It appears at the end of each verse. It is the same prayer, 430 years later, during a different plague. The prayer didn’t work then. The prayer doesn’t work now. But people still say it, because when everyone is dying, there is nothing else to say.