Who hope of lofty beauty should bestow

On one who presently must life forego;

Come put thee in my place,

Thy idle prayer retrace;

Wilt thou implore a gain,

That granted, only would enlarge the pain?

Death hath a sober face;

If even the unhappy find him rude,

How stern to one arrived at full beatitude?”

NOTES ON THE SONNETS EPIGRAMS AND MADRIGALS