Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
John Milton. 16081674321. On His Deceased Wife
METHOUGHT I saw my late espousèd Saint | |
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, | |
Whom Joves great Son to her glad Husband gave, | |
Rescu’d from death by force though pale and faint. | |
Mine as whom washt from spot of child-bed taint, | 5 |
Purification in the old Law did save, | |
And such, as yet once more I trust to have | |
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, | |
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind: | |
Her face was vail’d, yet to my fancied sight, | 10 |
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin’d | |
So clear, as in no face with more delight. | |
But O as to embrace me she enclin’d | |
I wak’d, she fled, and day brought back my night. |