Death & Dying

Fortune and Glory may be lost and won

by Thomas Campion 1567–1620

From Songs of Mourning (1613)

Death & Dying

Fortune and Glory may be lost and won,
But when the work of Nature is undone
That loss flies past returning;
No help is left but mourning.
What can to kind youth more despiteful prove
Than to be robbed of one sole brother?
Father and Mother
Ask reverence, a brother only love.
Like age and birth like thoughts and pleasures move:
What gain can he heap up, though showers of crowns descend,
Who for that good must change a brother and a friend?

Follow, O follow yet thy brother's fame,
But not his fate: let's only change the name,
And find his worth presented
In thee, by him prevented.
O'er past example of the dead be great,
Out of thyself begin thy story:
Virtue and glory
Are eminent being placed in princely seat.
Oh, heaven, his age prolong with sacred heat,
And on his honoured head let all the blessings light
Which to his brother's life men wished, and wished them right.

✦ ✦ ✦

Songs of Mourning (1613)

MLA

Campion, Thomas. “Fortune and Glory may be lost and won.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/campion/124/.

Chicago

Campion, Thomas. “Fortune and Glory may be lost and won.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/campion/124/.

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