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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EPITAPH ON KATHERINE, LADY OGLE by BEN JONSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: TIS A RECORD IN HEAVEN. YOU, THAT WERE
Last Line: AND THIS A COPY IS OF THE RECORD.
Subject(s): EPITAPHS;
'Tis a record in heaven. You, that were
Her children, and grand-children, read it here!
Transmit it to your nephews, friends, allies,
Tenants, and servants, have they hearts, and eyes,
To view the truth and own it. Do but look
With pause upon it; make this page your book;
Your book? Your volume! Nay, the state, and story!
Code, digests, pandects of all female glory!

@3Diphthera Jovis:@1
She was the light (without reflex
Upon her self) to all her sex!
The best of women, her whole life
Was the example of a wife!
Or of a parent, or a friend!
All circles had their spring and end
In her, and what could perfect be,
Or without angles, it was she!
All that was solid, in the name
Of virtue, precious in the frame:
Or else magnetic in the force,
Or sweet, or various, in the course!
What was proportion, or could be
By warrant called just symmetry,
In number, measure, or degree
Of weight, or fashion, it was she.
Her soul possessed her flesh's state
In fair freehold, not an inmate:
And when the flesh, here, shut up day,
Fame's heat upon the grave did stay;
And hourly brooding o'er the same,
Keeps warm the spice of her good name,
Until the dust returned be
Into a phoenix, which is she.

For this did Katherine, Lady Ogle, die
To gain the crown of immortality,
Eternity's great charter; which became
Her right, by gift, and purchase of the lamb:
Sealed, and delivered to her, in the sight
Of angels, and all witnesses of light,
Both saints, and martyrs, by her loved lord.
And this a copy is of the record.



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