| J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921. | | | | Orinda upon Little Hector Philips | | By Katherine Philips (‘Orinda’) (1631–1664) |
| | | TWICE forty months of wedlock I did stay, | |
| Then had my vows crown’d with a lovely boy, | |
| And yet in forty days he dropt away, | |
| O swift vicissitude of human joy. | |
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| I did but see him and he disappear’d, | 5 |
| I did but pluck the rose-bud and it fell, | |
| A sorrow unforeseen and scarcely fear’d, | |
| For ill can mortals their afflictions spell. | |
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| And now (sweet babe) what can my trembling heart | |
| Suggest to right my doleful fate or thee, | 10 |
| Tears are my Muse and sorrow all my art, | |
| So piercing groans must be thy elegy. | |
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| Thus whilst no eye is witness of my moan, | |
| I grieve thy loss (Ah boy too dear to live) | |
| And let the unconcerned world alone, | 15 |
| Who neither will, nor can refreshment give. | |
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| An off’ring too for thy sad tomb I have, | |
| Too just a tribute to thy early hearse, | |
| Receive these gasping numbers to thy grave, | |
| The last of thy unhappy mother’s verse. | 20 | | | |
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