| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Death—A Song | | By Thomas Flatman (1637–1688) |
| | | 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, | |
| And—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 | |
| Then e’er my rhetoric could before: | |
| Persuade the world to trouble me no more! | | | | |
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