Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MIRA'S WILL, by MARY LEAPOR Poet's Biography First Line: Imprimis - my departed shade I trust Last Line: In body healthy, and composed in mind. Subject(s): Wills | ||||||||
IMPRIMIS -- My departed shade I trust To heaven -- My body to the silent dust; My name to public censure I submit, To be disposed of as the world thinks fit; My vice and folly let oblivion close, The world already is o'erstocked with those; My wit I give, as misers give their store, To those who think they had enough before. Bestow my patience to compose the lives Of slighted virgins and neglected wives; To modish lovers I resign my truth, My cool reflection to unthinking youth; And some good-nature give ('tis my desire) To surly husbands, as their needs require; And first discharge my funeral -- and then To the small poets I bequeath my pen. Let a small sprig (true emblem of my rhyme) Of blasted laurel on my hearse recline; Let some grave wight, that struggles for renown By chanting dirges through a market-town, With gentle step precede the solemn train; A broken flute upon his arm shall lean. Six comic poets may the corse surround, And all free-holders, if they can be found: Then follow next the melancholy throng, As shrewd instructors, who themselves are wrong: The virtuoso, rich in sun-dried weeds, The politician, whom no mortal heeds, The silent lawyer, chambered all the day, And the stern soldier that receives no pay. But stay -- the mourners should be first our care: Let the freed 'prentice lead the miser's heir; Let the young relict wipe her mournful eye, And widowed husbands o'er their garlic cry. All this let my executors fulfil, And rest assured that this is Mira's will, Who was, when she these legacies designed, In body healthy, and composed in mind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SWEET NOSEGAY: AUTHOR MAKETH HER WILL & TESTAMENT: A COMMUNICATION . by ISABELLA WHITNEY POSTHUMOUS TALES: TALE 20. THE WILL by GEORGE CRABBE W IS FOR WILL by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A LEGACY by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON RIVINGTON'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT by PHILIP FRENEAU ROMANCERO: BOOK 2. LAMENTATIONS: LAZARUS. 19. THE WILL by HEINRICH HEINE MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER PRECIOUS LEG: HER LAST WILL by THOMAS HOOD BALLADE OF THE SECOND-BEST BED by KARL SHAPIRO A LAST WILL by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907) ADVICE TO SOPHRONIA by MARY LEAPOR |
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