Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE DEATH OF MY MUCH HONOURED UNCLE, MR. G. SANDYS, by WILLIAM HAMMOND



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE DEATH OF MY MUCH HONOURED UNCLE, MR. G. SANDYS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Pardon, great soul, if duty grounded on
Last Line: Tis making anthems in the heavenly quire!
Subject(s): Death; Sandys, George (1578-1644); Dead, The


PARDON, great Soul, if duty grounded on
Blood and affection's firm devotion,
Force my weak Muse to sacrilege, and by
Short payment rob thy sacred memory!
To be thy wit's executor, though I
No title have, yet a small legacy
Fitting my small reception didst thou leave,
Which from thy learned works I did receive;
I should then prove unthankful to deny
Some spices to embalm that memory,
Whose soul, and better part, thy lines alone
Establish in Eternity's bright throne:
Our humble art the body of thy fame
Only to Memphian mummy tries to frame;
Which, though a swarthy dryness it puts on,
Is raised yet above corruption.
A tomb of rarest art, magnificent
As e'er the East did to thy eyes present,
Erected by great Falkland's learned hands
To thee alive, in his eloquiums stands.
Thy body we are only then t' inter,
And to those matchless epitaphs refer
The hasty passenger, that cannot stay
To hear thy larger Muse her worth display.
Unless unto the crowd about the hearse
(Those busy sons of sense) I shall rehearse
What worth in thy material part did dwell,
And at the funeral thy scutcheons spell;
Declare the extraction of thy noble line,
What graces from all parts of thee did shine,
That age thy sense did not at seventy cloud,
And thee a youth all then but death allow'd:
As for thy soul, if any do inquire,
'Tis making anthems in the heavenly Quire!





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