Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/285

 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.

239. A Widow's Hymn

How 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 belovèd 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.

239. peer] companion.