Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON HIS DEATH, by WILLIAM HABINGTON Poet's Biography First Line: Tell me, o great all-knowing god Last Line: I shall forgive the trespasse of my heire. Subject(s): Death; Dead, The | ||||||||
TELL me, O great all-knowing God! What period Hast thou unto my dayes assign'd? Like some old leaflesse tree shall I Wither away: or violently Fall by the axe, by lightning or the wind? Heere, where I first drew vital breath Shall I meete death? And find in the same vault a roome Where my fore-fathers' ashes sleepe? Or shall I die, where none shall weepe My timelesse fate, and my cold earth intombe? Shall I 'gainst the swift Parthians fight And in their flight Receive my death? Or shall I see That envied peace, in which we are Triumphant yet, disturb'd by warre; And perish by th'invading enemie? Astrologers, who calculate Uncertaine fate Affirme my scheme doth not presage Any abridgement of my dayes: And the phisitian gravely sayes, I may enjoy a reverent length of age. But they are jugglers, and by flight Of art the sight Of faith delude: and in their schoole They onely practise how to make A mistery of each mistake, And teach strange words, credulity to fool. For thou who first didst motion give, Whereby things live And Time hath being! to conceale Future events didst thinke it fit To checke th'ambition of our wit, And keepe in awe the curious search of zeale. Therefore I so prepar'd still be, My God for Thee: Oth' sudden on my spirits may Some killing Apoplexie seize, Or let me by a dull disease Or weakened by a feeble age decay. And so I in thy favour die, No memorie For me a well-wrought tombe prepare, For if my soule be 'mong the blest Though my poore ashes want a chest, I shall forgive the trespasse of my heire. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND AGAINST THEM WHO LAY UNCHASTITY TO THE SEX OF WOMAN by WILLIAM HABINGTON |
|