The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont ... Edited from the autograph manuscript with introduction and notes by Eloise Robinson |
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Upon my Fathers Sudden &
Dangerous Sickness
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 | The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont |  |
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Upon my Fathers Sudden & Dangerous Sickness
Oct. 11. —49.
1
Though sad this Lesson be to Me,Bycause I love the Book wherein 'tis writ;
Yet shall no Greif so potent be
As to forbid my Industrie to get
It thoroughly by heart: For why
Should I my Father loose, although He dy?
2
In mine own Blood, alas, I seeThis Lesson painted; & I needs must read:
Neer, wondrous neer of kin to Me
His very Sickness is; nor could I plead
Against my Fate, although I were
Made his Pains Sonn, & his Distempers Heir.
3
What though by all the World before,Whose Dust & Graves, Deaths Victory confess,
Our Times will take no Warning, nor
Expect what full against them flying is
On every Minutes Wings, but by
Their Lives, their Lives uncertainty deny?
377
4
I see no ground to fancy howThis Moment can secure the next to Me:
O no! Mortality, wch now
Knocks at my Fathers door, right neighbourlie
To mine gives Warning, & may heer
Enter, for aught I know, as soon as there.
5
And let it enter, JESU, whenSoe'r thy Pleasure is its way to ope;
But first, oh first, do Thou come in,
That by thy gracious Presence Thou mayst stopp
What Thou admittest; for by Thee
Deaths Ev'n shall be the Dawn of Life to Me.
| The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont | |