William Cartwright : On a virtuous young gentlewoman that died suddenly

William Cartwright

(1611-1643)

ON A VIRTUOUS YOUNG GENTLEWOMAN

THAT DIED SUDDENLY

 

He who to Heaven more Heaven doth annex,

Whose lowest thought was above all our sex,

Accounted nothing death but t’ be reprieved,

And died as free from sickness as she lived.

Others are dragg’d away, or must be driven,

She only saw her time and stept to Heaven;

Where seraphims view all her glories o’er,

As one return’d that had been there before.

For while she did this lower world adorn,

Her body seem’d rather assumed than born;

So rarified, advanced, so pure and whole,

That body might have been another’s soul;

And equally a miracle it were

That she could die, or that she could live here.

 

William Cartwright poetry

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