dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  448. On the Death of a particular Friend

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

James Thomson. 1700–1748

448. On the Death of a particular Friend

AS those we love decay, we die in part, 
String after string is sever’d from the heart; 
Till loosen’d life, at last but breathing clay, 
Without one pang is glad to fall away. 
 
Unhappy he who latest feels the blow!         5
Whose eyes have wept o’er every friend laid low, 
Dragg’d ling’ring on from partial death to death, 
Till, dying, all he can resign is—breath.