Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, UPON THE MUCH LAMENTED DEATH OF LADY ELIZABETH LANGHAM, by BATHSUA PELL MAKIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UPON THE MUCH LAMENTED DEATH OF LADY ELIZABETH LANGHAM, by                    
First Line: Pass not, but wonder, and amazed stand
Last Line: Installed with bliss, and hallelejahs sound.
Subject(s): Death; Grief; Life; Love; Soul; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness


Pass not, but wonder, and amazed stand
At this sad tomb; for here enclosed lie
Such rare perfections that no tongue or hand
Can speak them or portray them to the eye;
Such was her body, such her soul divine!
Which now ascended, here hath left this shrine.
To tell her princely birth, her high descent
And what by noble Huntingdon is meant,
Transcends the herald's art, beyond the rules
Of Or, or Argent, Azure, or of Gules;
To that nobility her birth had given
A second added was, derived from heaven;
Thence her habitual goodness, solid worth,
Her piety; her virtues blazon forth;
Her for a pattern unto after ages,
To be admired by all, expressed by sages,
Who when they write of her, will sadly sorrow
That she did not survive to see their morrow.
So good in all relations, so sweet
A daughter, such a lovely wife, discreet
A mother; though not hers, not partial
She loved, as if they had been natural.
To th' Earl and Ladies she a sister rare,
A friend where she professed, beyond compare.
Her hours were all precisely kept, and spent
In her devotions; and her studies meant
To share some for her languages, which she
In Latin, French, Italian happily
Advanced in with pleasure; what do I
Recount her parts? her memory speaks more
Than what can be, or hath been said before:
It asks a volume, rather than a verse,
Which is confined only to her hearse.
But now blessed soul, she is arriv'd at heaven,
Where with a crown of life to her is given
A new transcendent Name, to th' world unknowne,
Not writ in marble, but the saint's white stone:
Inthron'd above the stars, with glory crown'd,
Installed with bliss, and Hallelejahs sound.





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