I durst haue sworne
    The lingring yeare, the Autumne had adiourn’d,
    And the fresh Spring had beene againe return’d, 40
    Her delicacie, louelinesse, and grace,
    With such a Summer brauery deckt the place: 
    But now alas, it lookt forlorne and dead;
    And where she stood, the fading leaues were shed,
    Presenting onely sorrowe to my sight,
    O God (thought I) this is her Embleme right. 
    And sure I thinke it cannot but be thought,
    That I to her by prouidence was brought. 
    For that the Fates fore-dooming, shee should die,
    Shewed me this wondrous Master peece, that I 50
    Should sing her Funerall, that the world should know it,
    That heauen did thinke her worthy of a Poet;
    My hand is fatall, nor doth fortune doubt,
    For what it writes, not fire shall ere race out. 
    A thousand silken Puppets should haue died,
    And in their fulsome Coffins putrified,
    Ere in my lines, you of their names should heare
    To tell the world that such there euer were,
    Whose memory shall from the earth decay,
    Before those Rags be worne they gaue away:  60
    Had I her god-like features neuer seene,
    Poore slight Report had tolde me she had beene
    A hansome Lady, comely, very well,
    And so might I haue died an Infidell,
    As many doe which neuer did her see,
    Or cannot credit, what she was, by mee. 
      Nature, her selfe, that before Art prefers
    To goe beyond all our Cosmographers,
    By Charts and Maps exactly that haue showne,
    All of this earth that euer can be knowne, 70
    For that she would beyond them all descrie
    What Art could not by any mortall eye;
    A Map of heauen in her rare features drue,
    And that she did so liuely and so true,
    That any soule but seeing it might sweare
    That all was perfect heauenly that was there. 
    If euer any Painter were so blest,
    To drawe that face, which so much heau’n exprest,
    If in his best of skill he did her right,
    I wish it neuer may come in my sight, 80
    I greatly doubt my faith (weake man) lest I
    Should to that face commit Idolatry. 
      Death might haue tyth’d her sex, but for this one,
    Nay, haue ta’n halfe to haue let her alone;
    Such as their wrinkled temples to supply,
    Cyment them vp with sluttish Mercury,
    Such as vndrest were able to affright,
    A valiant man approching him by night;
    Death might haue taken such, her end deferd,
    Vntill the time she had beene climaterd; 90
    When she would haue bin at threescore yeares and three,
    Such as our best at three and twenty be,
    With enuie then, he might haue ouerthrowne her,