Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
V. Death and BereavementThe fairest thing in mortal eyes
Charles, Duke of Orléans (13941465)Addressed to his deceased wife, who died in childbed at the age of twenty-two
T
My love a minster wrought,
And, in the chantry, service there
Was sung by doleful thought;
The tapers were of burning sighs,
That light and odor gave:
And sorrows, painted o’er with tears,
Enluminèd her grave;
And round about, in quaintest guise,
Was carved: “Within this tomb there lies
The fairest thing in mortal eyes.”
Of gold and sapphires blue:
The gold doth show her blessedness,
The sapphires mark her true;
For blessedness and truth in her
Were livelily portrayed,
When gracious God with both his hands
Her goodly substance made.
He framed her in such wondrous wise,
She was, to speak without disguise,
The fairest thing in mortal eyes.
When I the life recall
Of her who lived so free from taint,
So virtuous deemed by all,—
That in herself was so complete
I think that she was ta’en
By God to deck his paradise,
And with his saints to reign,
Whom while on earth each one did prize
The fairest thing in mortal eyes.
All soon or late in death shall sleep;
Nor living wight long time may keep
The fairest thing in mortal eyes.