GEORGE WITHER

Let all times, both present, past, And the age that shall be last, Vaunt the beauties they bring forth. I have found in one such worth, That content I neither care What the best before me were ; Nor desire to live and see Who shall fair hereafter be ; For I know the hand of Nature Will not make a fairer creature.

��2 5 p. A Widow* s Hymn

t_J OW near me came the hand of Death,

• * When at my side he struck my dear,

And took away the precious breath Which quicken'd my beloved peer ! How helpless am I thereby made ! By day how grieved, by night how sad ! And now my life's delight is gone, Alas ! how am I left alone !

The voice which I did more esteem

Than music in her sweetest key,

Those eyes which unto me did seem

More comfortable than the day ;

Those now by me, as they have been, Shall never more be heard or seen ; But what I once enjoy'd in them Shall seem hereafter as a dream.

. peer] companion.

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