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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BACON'S EPITAPH, MADE BY HIS MAN, by JOHN COTTON (1640-1699) Poet's Biography First Line: Death, why so cruel? What! No other way Last Line: Whether to caesar he was friend or foe. Subject(s): Bacon, Nathaniel (1647-1676); Jamestown, Virginia | |||
DEATH, why so cruel? What! no other way To manifest thy spleen, but thus to slay Our hopes of safety, liberty, our all, Which, through thy tyranny, with him must fall To its late chaos? Had thy rigid force Been dealt by retail, and not thus in gross, Grief had been silent. Now we must complain, Since thou, in him, hast more than thousands slain, Whose lives and safeties did so much depend On him their life, with him their lives must end. If't be a sin to think Death brib'd can be We must be guilty; say 't was bribery Guided the fatal shaft. Virginia's foes, To whom for secret crimes just vengeance owes Deserved plagues, dreading their just desert, Corrupted Death by Paracelsian art Him to destroy; whose well-tried courage such, Their heartless hearts, nor arms, nor strength could touch. Who now must heal those wounds, or stop that blood The Heathen made, and drew into a flood? Who is 't must plead our cause? nor trump, nor drum, Nor Deputation; these, alas! are dumb And cannot speak. Our arms (though ne'er so strong) Will want the aid of his commanding tongue, Which conquer'd more than Caesar. He o'erthrew Only the outward frame; this could subdue The rugged works of nature. Souls replete With dull chill cold, he'd animate with heat Drawn forth of reason's limbec. In a word, Mars and Minerva both in him concurred For arts, for arms, whose pen and sword alike As Cato's did, may admiration strike Into his foes; while they confess withal It was their guilt styl'd him a criminal. Only this difference does from truth proceed: They in the guilt, he in the name must bleed. While none shall dare his obsequies to sing In deserv'd measures; until time shall bring Truth crown'd with freedom, and from danger free To sound his praises to posterity. Here let him rest; while we this truth report, He's gone from hence unto a higher Court To plead his cause, where he by this doth know Whether to Caesar he was friend or foe. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BURNING OF JAMESTOWN by THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH JOHN SMITH'S APPROACH TO JAMESTOWN [MAY 13, 1607] by JAMES BARRON HOPE ODE TO JAMESTOWN by JAMES KIRKE PAULDING THE MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS [APRIL 5, 1614] by MRS. M. M. WEBSTER STATE FOR STATE, WITH ALL ATTENDANTS, WHO WOULD CHANGE? NOT by MARIANNE MOORE |
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