Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE DEATH OF MISTRESS ELIZABETH FILMER; AN ELEGIACAL EPITAPH, by RICHARD LOVELACE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE DEATH OF MISTRESS ELIZABETH FILMER; AN ELEGIACAL EPITAPH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: You that shall live awhile before
Last Line: When all but very virtue's dead.
Subject(s): Epitaphs


YOU that shall live awhile before
Old Time tires, and is no more;
When that this ambitious stone
Stoops low as what it tramples on;
Know that in that age when sin
Gave the world law, and govern'd queen,
A virgin liv'd, that still put on
White thoughts, though out of fashion;
That trac'd the stars spite of report,
And durst be good though chidden for't;
Of such a soul that infant Heav'n
Repented what it thus had giv'n;
For finding equal happy man,
Th' impatient pow'rs snatch'd it agen.
Thus, chaste as th' air whither she's fled,
She, making her celestial bed
In her warm alabaster, lay
As cold as in this house of clay;
Nor were the rooms unfit to feast
Or circumscribe this angel guest;
The radiant gem was brightly set
In as divine a carcanet;
For which the clearer was not known,
Her mind or her complexion:
Such an everlasting grace,
Such a beatific face
Encloisters here this narrow floor
That possess'd all hearts before.
Blest and bewail'd in death and birth!
The smiles and tears of heav'n and earth!
Virgins at each step are afear'd,
Filmer is shot by which they steer'd,
Their star extinct, their beauty dead
That the young world to honour led.
But see! the rapid spheres stand still,
And tune themselves unto her will.
Thus, although this marble must,
As all things, crumble into dust,
And though you find this fair-built tomb
Ashes, as what lies in its womb;
Yet her saint-like name shall shine
A living glory to this shrine,
And her eternal fame be read,
When all but very Virtue's dead.





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