A WIDOW'S HYMN
by: George Wither (1588-1667)
- OW 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!
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- 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.
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- Lord! keep me faithful to the trust
- Which my dear spouse reposed in me:
- To him now dead preserve me just
- In all that should performèd be!
- For though our being man and wife
- Extendeth only to this life,
- Yet neither life nor death should end
- The being of a faithful friend.
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