Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UPON THE DEATH OF THE EARL OF BALCARRES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis folly for all, that can be said
Last Line: That heav'n stands still, and only earth goes round.


1.

'TIS folly all, that can be said
By living Mortals of th' immortal dead,
And I'm afraid they laugh at the vain tears we shed.
'Tis as if we, who stay behind
In Expectation of the wind,
Should pity those, who pass'd this strait before,
And touch the universal shore.
Ah happy Man, who art to sail no more!
And, if it seem ridiculous to grieve,
Because our Friends are newly come from Sea,
Though ne're so fair and calm it be;
What would all sober men believe,
If they should hear us sighing say:
Balcarres, who but th' other Day
Did all our Love, and our Respect command,
At whose great parts we all amaz'd did stand,
Is from a storm, alas! cast suddenly on land?

2.

If you will say: Few Persons upon Earth
Did more then he, deserve to have
A life exempt from fortune, and the grave;
Whether you look upon his Birth,
And Ancestors, whose fame's so widely spred,
But Ancestors, alas, who long ago are dead!
Or whether you consider more
The vast increase, as sure you ought,
Of honor by his Labour bought,
And added to the former store.
All I can answer, is, that I allow
The priviledge you plead for; and avow
That, as he well-deserv'd, he doth injoy it now.

3.

Though God for great and righteous ends,
Which his unerring Providence intends,
Erroneous mankind should not understand,
Would not permit Balcarres' hand,
That once, with so much industry and art,
Had clos'd the gaping wounds of ev'ry part,
To perfect his distracted Nation's Cure,
Or stop the fatal bondage, 'twas t' endure;
Yet for his pains he soon did him remove,
From all th' oppression, and the woe,
Of his frail Bodie's Native Soil below,
To his Soul's true and peaceful Country above:
So God, like Kings, for secret Causes, known
Sometimes, but to themselves alone,
One of their ablest Ministers elect,
And send abroad to Treaties, which th' intend
Shall never take effect.
But, though the Treaty wants a happy end,
The happy agent wants not the Reward,
For which he Labour'd faithfully and hard;
His just and righteous Master calls him home,
And gives him near himself some honourable room.

4.

Noble and great endeavours did he bring
To save his Country, and restore his King:
And whilst the Manly half of him, which those
Who know not Love, to be the whole suppose,
Perform'd all parts of Virtue's vigorous Life;
The beauteous half, his lovely Wife,
Did all his Labors and his cares divide;
Nor was a lame, nor paralitick side.
In all the turnes of human state,
And all th' unjust attacques of fate,
She bore her share and portion still;
And would not suffer any to be ill.
Unfortunate for ever let me be,
If I believe that such was he,
Whom, in the storms of bad success,
And all that error calls unhappiness,
His virtue, and his virtuous Wife did still accompany.

5.

With these companions, 'twas not strange
That nothing could his temper change.
His own and Countrie's Ruin, had not Weight
Enough to crush his mighty mind.
He saw around the Hurricans of State,
Fix'd as an Island 'gainst the waves and wind.
Thus far the greedy Sea may reach,
All outward things are but the Beach;
A great Man's Soul it doth assault in vain.
Their God himself the Ocean doth restrain
With an imperceptible chain,
And bid it to go back again:
His Wisdom, Justice, and his Piety,
His Courage both to suffer and to die,
His Virtues, and his Lady too
Were things Celestial. And we see
In spight of quarrelling Philosophie,
How in this case 'tis certain found,
That Heav'n stands still, and only Earth goes round.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net