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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  255. The Funeral Rites of the Rose

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Robert Herrick. 1591–1674

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.