AN ELEGIE.

ME thinks when Kings, Prophets, and Poets dye,
We should not bid men weep, nor ask them why,
But the great loss should by instinct impair
The Nations like a pestilential ayr.
And in a moment men should feel the Cramp,
Of grief like person… poyson'd with a damp:
All thing▪ in nature should their death deplore,
And the Sun look less l…vely th…n before,
The fixed Stares should change …heir constant spaces,
And Comets cast abroad their …lagrant faces;
Yet still we see …rinces and Poets fall
Without …heir proper pomp of funerall,
Men look about as if they …ere had known
The Poets Lawrell, or the Princes Crown;
Lovelace hath long been dead, and we can be
Oblig'd to man for an Elegie.
Are you all turn'd to silence or did he
Retain the only sap of Poesie,
Th…t kept all branches living, must his fall
Set an eternal period upon all:
So when a Spring-tide doth begin to fly
From the green shoar, each neighbouring creek grows dry
But why do! so pettishly detract
An age that is so perfect, so exact,
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Hath got a great train of Artillerie,
Yet neither shall, nor can it blest the Fame
And honour of deceased Lovelace Name,
Whose own Lucasta can support his credit:
Amongst all such who knowi…ly have read it,
But who that Praise can by desert discusse
Due to those Poems that are Posthumous;
And if the l…st conception… are the best,
Those by degrees do much transcend the rest,
So full, so fluent, that they richly …
With Orpheus Li…e, or with … Lu…e,
And he shall melt his wing that shall aspire
To reach a Fancy or one accent hig…er.
Holland and France have known his nobler part…,
And found him excellent in Arms▪ and … ▪
To sum up all, f… Men of Fame but know
He was tam Marti, quam Mercurio.