Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916.
To a Mistress Dying
Sir William Davenant (16061668)
Lover.
YOUR beauty, ripe and calm and fresh |
As eastern summers are, |
Must now, forsaking time and flesh, |
Add light to some small star. Philosopher. |
Whilst she yet lives, were stars decay’d, |
Their light by hers relief might find; |
But Death will lead her to a shade |
Where Love is cold and Beauty blind. Lover. |
Lovers, whose priests all poets are, |
Think every mistress, when she dies, |
Is changed at least into a star: |
And who dares doubt the poets wise? Philosopher. |
But ask not bodies doom’d to die |
To what abode they go; |
Since Knowledge is but Sorrow’s spy, |
It is not safe to know.
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