|
|
Upon The Death Of His Sparrow. An Elegy.
By Robert Herrick
Why do not all fresh maids appear
To work love's sampler only here,
Where spring-time smiles throughout the year?
Are not here rosebuds, pinks, all flowers
Nature begets by th' sun and showers,
Met in one hearse-cloth to o'erspread
The body of the under-dead?
Phil, the late dead, the late dead dear,
O! may no eye distil a tear
For you once lost, who weep not here!
Had Lesbia, too-too kind, but known
This sparrow, she had scorn'd her own:
And for this dead which under lies
Wept out her heart, as well as eyes.
But, endless peace, sit here and keep
My Phil the time he has to sleep;
And thousand virgins come and weep
To make these flowery carpets show
Fresh as their blood, and ever grow,
Till passengers shall spend their doom:
Not Virgil's gnat had such a tomb.
Extra Info:
Phil, otherwise Philip or Phip, was a pet name for a sparrow.
Virgil's gnat, the Culex attributed to Virgil.
Had Lesbia, etc. See Catullus, Carm. iii.
|
|
Printable Page
Add Your Thoughts on this poem.
This page viewed 284 times.
|
|
