Death & Dying

Funerall Elegies: His Epitaph

by Francis Quarles 1592–1644

From Divine Poems (1633), Funerall Elegies

Death & Dying

ASke you, why so many a teare
Bursts forth; I'le tell you in your eare:
Compell me not to speake aloud,
Death would then be too too proud;
Eyes that cannot vye a teare,
Forbeare to aske, you may not heare:
Gentle hearts, that overflow
Have onely priviledge to know:
In these sacred ashes, then,
Know (Reader) that a man of men
Lyes covered: Fame and lasting glory
Make deare mention of his story:
Nature when she gave him birth,
Op'd her treasure to the earth,
Put forth the modell of true merit,
Quickned with a higher spirit:
Rare was his life; His latest breath
Saw, and scorn'd, and conquer'd death:
Thanklesse Reader, never more
Vrge a why, when teares runne ore:
When you saw so high a Tyde,
You might haue knowne, 'twas Ailmer dyde,

MLA

Quarles, Francis. “Funerall Elegies: His Epitaph.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/quarles/694/.

Chicago

Quarles, Francis. “Funerall Elegies: His Epitaph.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/quarles/694/.

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