Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 294 pages of information about Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham.

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 294 pages of information about Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham.

Under this stone lies virtue, youth,
Unblemish’d probity, and truth,
Just unto all relations known,
A worthy patriot, pious son;
Whom neighb’ring towns so often sent
To give their sense in Parliament;
With lives and fortunes trusting one
Who so discreetly used his own. 
Sober he was, wise, temperate, 9
Contented with an old estate,
Which no foul avarice did increase,
Nor wanton luxury make less. 
While yet but young his father died,
And left him to a happy guide;
Not Lemuel’s mother with more care
Did counsel or instruct her heir,
Or teach with more success her son
The vices of the time to shun. 
An heiress she; while yet alive,
All that was hers to him did give; 20
And he just gratitude did show
To one that had obliged him so;
Nothing too much for her he thought,
By whom he was so bred and taught. 
So (early made that path to tread,
Which did his youth to honour lead)
His short life did a pattern give
How neighbours, husbands, friends, should live.

The virtues of a private life
Exceed the glorious noise and strife 30
Of battles won; in those we find
The solid int’rest of mankind.

Approved by all, and loved so well,
Though young, like fruit that’s ripe, he fell.

EPITAPH ON COLONEL CHARLES CAVENDISH.[1]

Here lies Charles Ca’ndish; let the marble stone
That hides his ashes make his virtue known. 
Beauty and valour did his short life grace,
The grief and glory of his noble race! 
Early abroad he did the world survey,
As if he knew he had not long to stay;
Saw what great Alexander in the East,
And mighty Julius conquer’d in the West;
Then, with a mind as great as theirs, he came
To find at home occasion for his fame; 10
Where dark confusion did the nations hide,
And where the juster was the weaker side. 
Two loyal brothers took their sov’reign’s part,
Employ’d their wealth, their courage, and their art;
The elder[2] did whole regiments afford;
The younger brought his conduct and his sword. 
Born to command, a leader he begun,
And on the rebels lasting honour won. 
The horse, instructed by their general’s worth,
Still made the king victorious in the north. 20
Where Ca’ndish fought, the Royalists prevail’d;
Neither his courage nor his judgment fail’d. 
The current of his vict’ries found no stop,
Till Cromwell came, his party’s chiefest prop. 
Equal success had set these champions high,
And both resolved to conquer or to die. 
Virtue with rage, fury with valour strove;
But that must fall which is decreed above! 
Cromwell, with odds of number and of fate,
Removed this bulwark of the church and state; 30
Which the sad issue of the war declared,
And made his task, to ruin both, less hard. 
So when the bank, neglected, is o’erthrown,
The boundless torrent does the country drown. 
Thus fell the young, the lovely, and the brave;—­
Strew bays and flowers on his honoured grave!

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Project Gutenberg
Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.