Epitaph on her Son H. P.



WHat on Earth deserves our trust ?
  Youth and Beauty both are dust.
  Long we gathering are with pain,
  What one moment calls again.
  Seven years childless, marriage past,
  A Son, a son is born at last :
  So exactly lim'd and fair.
  Full of good Spirits, Meen, and Air,
  As a long life promised,
Yet, in less than six weeks dead.
Too promising, too great a mind
In so small room to be confin'd :
Therefore, as fit in Heav'n to dwell,
He quickly broke the Prison shell.
So the subtle Alchimist,
Can't with Hermes Seal resist
The powerful spirit's subtler flight,
But t'will bid him long good night.
And so the Sun if it arise
Half so glorious as his Eyes,
Like this Infant, takes a shrowd,
Buried in a morning Cloud.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 13, 2023

41 sec read
151

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCDDEEAFGGHHAIJJKKAL
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 709
Words 133
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 22

Katherine Philips

Katherine Philips was an Anglo-Welsh poet, translator, and woman of letters. more…

All Katherine Philips poems | Katherine Philips Books

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