| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXVI. Melancholy
On the Death of Katharine Kingscourt | | By John Oldham (1653–1683) |
| | | EARTH was unworthy such a prize as this, | |
| Only a while Heav’n let us share the bliss; | |
| In vain her stay with fruitless tears we’d woo, | |
| In vain we’d court, when that our rival grew. | |
| Thanks, ye kind Powers! who did so long dispense | 5 |
| (Since you so wished her) with her absence thence: | |
| We now resign, to you alone we grant | |
| The sweet monopoly of such a saint; | |
| So pure a saint. I scarce dare call her so, | |
| For fear to wrong her with a name too low; | 10 |
| Such a seraphic brightness in her shined, | |
| I hardly can believe her womankind. | | | | |
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