Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, LORD HERBERT, by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: If there be a tear unshed Last Line: Have shut for theedear lordgood night. Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, William Of Tavistock Subject(s): Herbert, Charles (d. 1635) | ||||||||
IF there be a tear unshed On friend, or child, or parent dead, Bestow it here; for this sad stone Is capable of such alone. Custom showers swell not our deeps, Such as those his marble weeps; Only they bewail his herse, Who unskill'd in powerful verse, To bemoan him slight their eyes, And let them fall for elegies. All that sweetness, all that youth All that virtue, all that truth Can or speak, or wish, or praise, Was in him in his few days. His blood of Herbert, Sidney, Vere, Names great in either hemisphere, Need not to lend him of their fame: He had enough to make a name; And to their glories he had come, Had Heaven but given a later tomb. But the Fates his thread did spin Of a sleave so fine and thin Minding still a piece of wonder, It untimely broke in sunder; And we of their labours meet Nothing but a winding-sheet. What his mighty prince hath lost: What his father's hope and cost: What his sister, what his kin, Take too all the kingdom in: 'Tis a sea wherein to swim, Weary faint, and die with him. O let my private grief have room, Dear Lord, to wait upon thy tomb; And since my weak and saddest verse Was worthy thought thy grandam's herse, Accept of this! Just tears my sight Have shut for theedear Lordgood night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) VISIONS: 4. A ROSE by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) VISIONS: 5 by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) WELCOME by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) A ROUND by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AMOUR by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AN ELEGY by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AN ELEGY OF HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AN ELEGY ON MR. WILLIAM HOPTON by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AN ELEGY ON SIR THOMAS OVERBURY; POISONED IN THE TOWER OF LONDON by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AN ELEGY ON THE COUNTESS DOWAGER OF PEMBROKE by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AN ELEGY ON THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF THOMAS AYLEWORTH, SLAIN AT CROYDON by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |
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