|
| Elegie. |
|
| Language thou art too narrow, and too weake |
| To ease us now; great sorrow cannot speake; |
| If we could sigh out accents, and weepe words, |
| Griefe weares, and lessens, that tears breath affords. |
| Sad hearts, the lesse they seeme the more they are, |
| (So guiltiest men stand mutest at the barre) |
| Not that they know not, feele not their estate, |
| But extreme sense hath made them desperate; |
| Sorrow, to whom we owe all that we bee; |
| Tyrant, in the fift and greatest Monarchy, |
| Was't, that she did possesse all hearts before, |
| Thou hast kil'd her, to make thy Empire more? |
| Knew'st thou some would, that knew her not, lament, |
| As in a deluge perish th'innocent? |
| Was't not enough to have that palace wonne, |
| But thou must raze it too, that was undone? |
| Had'st thou staid there, and look'd out at her eyes, |
| All had ador'd thee that now from thee flies, |
| For they let out more light, then they tooke in, |
| They told not when, but did the day beginne; |
| She was too Saphirine, and cleare to thee; |
| Clay, flint, and jeat now thy fit dwellings be; |
| Alas, shee was too pure, but not too weake; |
| Who e'r saw Christall Ordinance but would break? |
| And if wee be thy conquest, by her fall |
| Th'hast lost thy end, for in her perish all; |
| Or if we live, we live but to rebell, |
| They know her better now, that knew her well; |
| If we should vapour out, and pine, and die; |
| Since, shee first went, that were not miserie;
|
[CW: Shee] |