Death & Dying
When pale famine fed on thee
From Songs of Mourning (1613)
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.
Codex Note
Songs of Mourning (1613)
Cite this poem
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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