Is it because he died, or that his years Not many were, that causeth all these tears? If for the first, you should have always wept, Even in his life, from first acquaintance, kept Sorrow awake, for that you know his fate Prefixed had a necessary date. How unadvisedly do you lament Because things mortal are not permanent. Or is't because he ere his aged snow, Or autumn came, was ravish'd from the bough? Ask but the sacred oracle, you there Shall find, untimely deaths no windfall are. The grand example, miracle of good, (In virtue only old) slain in the bud, Newly disclosing man. It were a shame To wish, than that of his, a longer flame. Who would not die before subdued by age? That conquest oft Fortune pursues with rage; Or sin in that advantage wounds him worse: To wish him long life, then, had been a curse! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PHANTOM KISS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ON THE DEATH OF MRS. JENNINGS by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD WERE IT ONLY NOW by A. W. BELL SONG by CHARLES GRANGER BLANDEN THE DEBT UNPAYABLE by FRANCIS WILLIAM BOURDILLON FAREWELL TO CUBA by MARIA GOWEN BROOKS EPITAPH ON HOLY WILLIE by ROBERT BURNS |