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Home  »  The Book of Sorrow  »  Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?)

Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916.

Epitaph on Lady Mary Villiers

Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?)

THIS little vault, this narrow room,

Of Love and Beauty is the tomb;

The dawning beam, that ’gan to clear

Our clouded sky, lies darken’d here,

For ever set to us: by Death

Sent to enflame the World Beneath.

’Twas but a bud, yet did contain

More sweetness than shall spring again;

A budding Star, that might have grown

Into a Sun when it had blown.

This hopeful Beauty did create

New life in Love’s declining state;

But now his empire ends, and we

From fire and wounding darts are free:

His brand, his bow, let no man fear;

The flames, the arrows, all lie here.