John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire (1648–1721)

SOME vex their souls with jealous pain,

While others sigh for cold disdain:

Love’s various slaves we daily see—

Yet happy all, compared with me!

Of all mankind I loved the best

A nymph so far above the rest

That we outshined the Blest above;

In beauty she, as I in love.

And therefore They, who could not bear

To be outdone by mortals here,

Among themselves have placed her now,

And left me wretched here below.

All other fate I could have borne,

And ev’n endured her very scorn;

But oh! thus all at once to find

That dread account—both dead and kind!

What heart can hold? If yet I live,

’Tis but to show how much I grieve.