Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AN ELEGY UPON PRINCE HENRY'S DEATH (DIED NOV. 6, 1612), by HENRY KING (1592-1669) Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Keep station, nature, and rest, heaven sure Last Line: And glory of our day set in his night. | ||||||||
KEEP station, Nature, and rest, Heaven, sure On thy supporters' shoulders, lest, past cure, Thou dash'd in ruin fall, by a grief's weight Will make thy basis shrink, and lay thy height Low as the centre. Hark! and feel it read Through the astonish'd Kingdom, Henry's dead. It is enough; who seeks to aggravate One strain beyond this, prove[s] more sharp his fate Than sad our doom. The world dares not survive To parallel this woe's superlative. O killing Rhetoric of Death! two words Breathe stronger terrors than plague, fire, or swords Ere conquer'd. This were epitaph and verse, Worthy to be prefix'd in Nature's hearse, Or Earth's sad dissolution; whose fall Will be less grievous, though more general: For all the woe ruin e'er buried Sounds in these fatal accents, Henry's dead. Cease then, unable Poetry; thy phrase Is weak and dull to strike us with amaze Worthy thy vaster subject. Let none dare To copy this sad hap, but with despair Hanging at his quill's point. For not a stream Of ink can write, much less improve, this theme. Invention highest wrought by grief or wit Must sink with him, and on his tombstone split; Who, like the dying Sun, tells us the light And glory of our Day set in his Night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SIC VITA by HENRY KING (1592-1669) THE EXEQUY [ON HIS WIFE] by HENRY KING (1592-1669) UPON THE DEATH OF MY EVER CONSTANT FRIEND DOCTOR DONNE, DEAN OF PAUL'S by HENRY KING (1592-1669) A LETTER by HENRY KING (1592-1669) A PENTITENTIAL HYMN by HENRY KING (1592-1669) A RENUNCIATION by HENRY KING (1592-1669) A SALUTATION OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP THE SOVEREIGN by HENRY KING (1592-1669) A SECOND ELEGY ON THE COUNTESS OF LEISTER by HENRY KING (1592-1669) AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT by HENRY KING (1592-1669) AN ELEGY OCCASIONED BY SICKNESS by HENRY KING (1592-1669) AN ELEGY ON SIR CHARLES LUCAS AND SIR GEORGE LISLE by HENRY KING (1592-1669) AN ELEGY UPON MRS. KIRK, UNFORTUNATELY DROWNED IN THAMES by HENRY KING (1592-1669) |
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