Love

On One who died discovering her Kindness

by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham and Normanby 1648–1721

From The Oxford Book of English Verse, ed. Arthur Quiller-Couch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900)

Love

Some vex their souls with jealous pain,
While others sigh for cold disdain:
Love's various slaves we daily see--
Yet happy all compared with me!

Of all mankind I loved the best
A nymph so far above the rest
That we outshined the Blest above;
In beauty she, as I in love.

And therefore They, who could not bear
To be outdone by mortals here,
Among themselves have placed her now,
And left me wretched here below.

All other fate I could have borne,
And even endured her very scorn;
But oh! thus all at once to find
That dread account--both dead and kind!
What heart can hold? If yet I live,
'Tis but to show how much I grieve.

MLA

Sheffield, John, Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. “On One who died discovering her Kindness.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/sheffield_j/1/.

Chicago

Sheffield, John, Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. “On One who died discovering her Kindness.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/sheffield_j/1/.

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