| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
| |
| Thomas Flatman. 1637–1688 |
| |
| 407. The Sad Day |
| |
| O THE sad day! | |
| When friends shall shake their heads, and say | |
| Of miserable me— | |
| 'Hark, how he groans! | |
| Look, how he pants for breath! | 5 |
| See how he struggles with the pangs of death!' | |
| When they shall say of these dear eyes— | |
| 'How hollow, O how dim they be! | |
| Mark how his breast doth rise and swell | |
| Against his potent enemy!' | 10 |
| When some old friend shall step to my bedside, | |
| Touch my chill face, and thence shall gently slide. | |
| |
| But—when his next companions say | |
| 'How does he do? What hopes?'—shall turn away, | |
| Answering only, with a lift-up hand— | 15 |
| 'Who can his fate withstand?' | |
| |
| Then shall a gasp or two do more | |
| Than e'er my rhetoric could before: | |
| Persuade the world to trouble me no more! | |
|
|
