| AS time one day by me did pass | |
| Through a large dusky glasse | |
| He held, I chanc'd to look | |
| And spyed his curious book | |
| Of past days, where sad Heav'n did shed | 5 |
| A mourning light upon the dead. | |
| |
| Many disordered lives I saw | |
| And foul records which thaw | |
| My kinde eyes still, but in | |
| A fair, white page of thin | 10 |
| And ev'n, smooth lines, like the Suns rays, | |
| Thy name was writ, and all thy days. | |
| |
| O bright and happy Kalendar! | |
| Where youth shines like a star | |
| All pearl'd with tears, and may | 15 |
| Teach age, The Holy way; | |
| Where through thick pangs, high agonies | |
| Faith into life breaks, and death dies. | |
| |
| As some meek night-piece which day quails, | |
| To candle-light unveils: | 20 |
| So by one beamy line | |
| From thy bright lamp did shine, | |
| In the same page thy humble grave | |
| Set with green herbs, glad hopes and brave. | |
| |
| Here slept my thoughts dear mark! which dust | 25 |
| Seem'd to devour, like rust; | |
| But dust (I did observe) | |
| By hiding doth preserve, | |
| As we for long and sure recruits, | |
| Candy with sugar our choice fruits. | 30 |
| |
| O calm and sacred bed where lies | |
| In deaths dark mysteries | |
| A beauty far more bright | |
| Then the noons cloudless light | |
| For whose dry dust green branches bud | 35 |
| And robes are bleach'd in the Lambs blood. | |
| |
| Sleep happy ashes! (blessed sleep!) | |
| While haplesse I still weep; | |
| Weep that I have out-liv'd | |
| My life, and unreliev'd | 40 |
| Must (soul-lesse shadow!) so live on, | |
| Though life be dead, and my joys gone. | |
| |
