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

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

An Epitaph upon husband and wife who died and were buried together

Richard Crashaw (c. 1613–1649)

TO these, whom death again did wed,

This grave ’s the second marriage-bed.

For though the hand of Fate could force

’Twixt soul and body a divorce,

It could not sever man and wife,

Because they both lived but one life.

Peace, good reader, do not weep;

Peace, the lovers are asleep!

They, sweet turtles, folded lie

In the last knot that love could tie.

Let them sleep, let them sleep on,

Till this stormy night be gone,

And the eternal morrow dawn;

Then the curtains will be drawn,

And they wake into a light

Whose day shall never die in night.