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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONNET: 23. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE, by JOHN MILTON Recitation Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Methought I saw my late espoused saint
Last Line: I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.
Variant Title(s): Katherine Milton;alcestis;sonnet: 19;sonnet 19;a Dream Of A Dead Wife
Subject(s): Dreams; Grief; Immortality; Love - Marital; Mourning; Powell, Mary (d. 1652); Widows & Widowers; Woodcock, Katherine (1628-1658); Nightmares; Sorrow; Sadness; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Bereavement
First Line: Methought I saw my late espoused saint
Last Line: I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.
Variant Title(s): Katherine Milton;alcestis;sonnet: 19;sonnet 19;a Dream Of A Dead Wife
Subject(s): Dreams; Grief; Immortality; Love - Marital; Mourning; Powell, Mary (d. 1652); Widows & Widowers; Woodcock, Katherine (1628-1658); Nightmares; Sorrow; Sadness; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Bereavement
METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused Saint
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave,
Whom Joves great Son to her glad Husband gave,
Rescu'd from death by force though pale and faint.
Mine as whom washt from spot of child-bed taint,
Purification in the old Law did save,
And such, as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind:
Her face was vail'd, yet to my fancied sight,
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin'd
So clear, as in no face with more delight.
But O as to embrace me she enclin'd
I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.
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