Epitaph on the Late Mary Villiers
by Thomas Carew

English Cavalier poet. His longest poem is 'A Rapture', which effectively combines wit and eroticism. His famous Elegy for John Donne was included in the first edition of Donne's Poems in 1633. He also wrote many lyrics and a masque, Coelum Britannicum (1634). Other Cavalier poets include Sir John Suckling, Robert Herrick and Richard Lovelace.

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Epitaph on the Late Mary Villiers
by Thomas Carew

The Lady Mary Villiers lies
Under this stone; with weeping eyes
The parents that first gave her breath,
And their sad friends, laid her in earth.
If any of them, reader, were
Known unto thee, shed a tear;
Or if thyself possess a gem
As dear to thee as this to them,
Though a stranger to this place,
Bewail in theirs thine own hard case,
For thou perhaps at thy return
Mayst find thy darling in an urn.

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Epitaph on the Late Mary Villiers by Thomas Carew