Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELEGY OVER A TOMB, by EDWARD HERBERT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELEGY OVER A TOMB, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Must I then see, alas! Eternal night
Last Line: Or hope relief.
Alternate Author Name(s): Cherbury, 1st Baron Herbert Of; Herbert Of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron; Herbert Of Cherbury, Lord


Must I then see, alas! eternal night
Sitting upon those fairest eyes,
And closing all those beams, which once did rise
So radiant and bright,
That light and heat in them to us did prove
Knowledge and Love?
Oh, if you did delight no more to stay
Upon this low and earthly stage,
But rather chose an endless heritage,
Tell us at least, we pray,
Where all the beauties that those ashes owed
Are now bestowed?
Doth the sun now his light with yours renew?
Have waves the curling of your hair?
Did you restore unto the sky and air
The red, and white, and blue?
Have you vouchsafed to flowers since your death
That sweetest breath?
Had not Heaven's lights else in their houses slept,
Or to some private life retired?
Must not the sky and air have else conspired?
And in their regions wept?
Must not each flower else the earth could breed
Have been a weed?
But thus enriched may we not yield some cause
Why they themselves lament no more?
That must have changed the course they held before,
And broke their proper laws,
Had not your beauties given this second birth
To Heaven and Earth?
Tell us -- for oracles must still ascend,
For those that crave them at your tomb --
Tell us, where are those beauties now become,
And what they now intend:
Tell us, alas, that cannot tell our grief,
Or hope relief.






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