Death & Dying

When pale famine fed on thee

by Thomas Campion 1567–1620

From Songs of Mourning (1613)

Death & Dying

When pale famine fed on thee,
With her unsatiate jaws;
When civil broils set murder free
Contemning all thy laws;
When heav'n enraged consumed thee so
With plagues that none thy face could know,
Yet in thy looks affliction then showed less
Than now for one's fate all thy parts express.

Now thy highest states lament
A son, and brother's loss;
Thy nobles mourn in discontent,
And rue this fatal cross;
Thy commons are with passion sad
To think how brave a Prince they had:
If all thy rocks from white to black should turn
Yet could'st thou not in show more amply mourn.

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Songs of Mourning (1613)

MLA

Campion, Thomas. “When pale famine fed on thee.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/campion/127/.

Chicago

Campion, Thomas. “When pale famine fed on thee.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/campion/127/.

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