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Home  »  The Book of Sorrow  »  Richard Crashaw (c. 1613–1649)

Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916.

Euthanasia

Richard Crashaw (c. 1613–1649)

WOULD’ST see blithe looks, fresh cheeks, beguile

Age? would’st see December smile?

Would’st see nests of new roses grow

In a bed of reverend snow?

Warm thoughts, free spirits, flattering

Winter’s self into a Spring?

In sum, would’st see a man that can

Live to be old, and still a man?

Whose latest and most leaden hours

Fall with soft wings, stuck with soft flowers;

And when life’s sweet fable ends,

Soul and body part like friends;

No quarrels, murmurs, no delay—

A kiss, a sigh, and so—away;—

This rare one, reader, would’st thou see?

Hark hither!—and thyself be he.