Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Robert Herrick. 15911674
255. The Funeral Rites of the Rose
THE Rose was sick and smiling died; | |
And, being to be sanctified, | |
About the bed there sighing stood | |
The sweet and flowery sisterhood: | |
Some hung the head, while some did bring, | 5 |
To wash her, water from the spring; | |
Some laid her forth, while others wept, | |
But all a solemn fast there kept: | |
The holy sisters, some among, | |
The sacred dirge and trental sung. | 10 |
But ah! what sweet smelt everywhere, | |
As Heaven had spent all perfumes there. | |
At last, when prayers for the dead | |
And rites were all accomplishèd, | |
They, weeping, spread a lawny loom, | 15 |
And closed her up as in a tomb. | |
|
GLOSS: trental] services for the dead, of thirty masses. |