| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | X. The Pity of It
To the Memory of Elizabeth Nevell | | By Sir John Beaumont (1583–1627) |
| | | A NYMPH is dead, mild, virtuous, young, and fair; | |
| Death never counts by days, or months, or years: | |
| Oft in his sight the infant old appears, | |
| And to his earthly mansion must repair. | |
| Why should our sighs disturb the quiet air? | 5 |
| For when the flood of Time to ruin bears, | |
| No beauty can prevail, nor parents’ tears. | |
| When life is gone, we of the flesh despair, | |
| Yet still the happy soul immortal lives | |
| In Heaven, as we with pious hope conceive; | 10 |
| And to the Maker endless praises gives, | |
| That she so soon this loathsome world might leave. | |
| We judge that glorious spirit doubly blest, | |
| Which from short life ascends t’eternal rest. | | | | |
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