Epitaph on the Lady Mary Villiers
Epitaph on the Lady Mary Villiers
Original Text
Thomas Carew, Poems (J. D. for T. Walkley, 1640). STC 4620.
2Of Love, and Beauty, is the tomb;
3The dawning beam that gan to clear
4Our clouded sky, lies darken'd here,
5Forever set to us, by death
6Sent to inflame the world beneath.
7'Twas but a bud, yet did contain
8More sweetness than shall spring again;
9A budding star that might have grown
10Into a sun, when it had blown.
11This hopeful beauty did create
12New life in Love's declining state;
13But now his empire ends, and we
14From fire and wounding darts are free;
15His brand, his bow, let no man fear,
16The flames, the arrows, all lie here.
Notes
1] Carew wrote three epitaphs on Lady Mary, who is usually identified only as belonging to the family of the Dukes of Buckingham. It has recently been suggested that she was the daughter of the Earl and Countess of Anglesey, who died in 1630 at the age of two. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1640
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
3RP 1.220.
Form